The cholera outbreak in some parts of Ghana has gotten worse; as of December 26, 2024, there have been 359 confirmed cases and 37 fatalities. Compared to the 346 confirmed instances that were previously reported, this is a rise. The Ghana Health Service started conducting mortality audits after two additional deaths were reported in the Western region. Five people were brought in dead out of all the deaths.
A total of 4,618 suspected cases have been reported as a result of the epidemic in 91 out of 276 districts. Furthermore, as of December 24, 2024, there are 46 districts reporting confirmed cases, up from 44.
In response to the escalating situation, the Ghana Health Service has deployed multi-sectoral national, regional, and district rapid response teams to the affected areas to manage and control the outbreak. The latest districts to report cases are Agona East in the Central region and La Nkwantanang Madina in the Greater Accra region.
However, the service has noted a decrease in hospitalizations, with the number of patients currently hospitalized dropping from 64 to 46. The Western region currently has the highest number of hospitalized cases, with 37 patients, followed by the Central region with six and Greater Accra region with three. The Ghana Health Service has also traced 9,667 contacts related to the confirmed cases, with 8,667 of those contacts having completed a five-day follow-up period.
Furthermore, the Ghana Health Service successfully completed Phase 2 of the sub-national Oral Cholera Vaccine (OCV) campaign in 18 sub-districts within four hotspot districts of the Western Region between December 15 and 19, 2024. The four districts included Sekondi-Takoradi, Effia Kwesimintsim, Shama, and Ahanta West. A total of 596,205 individuals, representing 92.9% of the targeted population, were vaccinated during this campaign. The service has also intensified the testing of selected food vendors and water samples in the affected districts to further control the outbreak.
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