The Ministry of Health is rushing drugs and an amount of c1 million to the Wa regional hospital to help contain the outbreak of cholera in the Wa district and surrounding villages.
A release by the ministry in Accra yesterday said this is in response to a front-page story published in the Graphic. The release said the drugs are made up of 10,000 capsules of Tetracycline, 3,000 units of cholera replacement fluid, 2,000 normal saline and 10,000 units of Hartman's solution. The Graphic reported an outbreak of cholera epidemic in the Wa District and surrounding villages. The epidemic which was said to have started at Dondoli, a suburb of Wa on Wednesday, October 11, had spread to 13 areas at the time of the publication.
culled from the Daily Graphic - 24/10/95
Moves towards an early resolution of the six-month old strike by the University Teachers Association Of Ghana (UTAG) appeared to suffer a serious setback Monday with angry ministers protesting against what one called a cheap attempt to play political games with the destiny of our universities and the national budget.
At issue was a Memorandum of Understanding allegedly signed between UTAG and Vice-President Kow Arkaah, only a day after the departure of the President on his current tour. The memorandum reportedly accepted fully the demands of UTAG in their response to the last offer made by the government following the first face-to-face meeting with the President and his key advisers on the one side and the UTAG leadership and university establishment on the other. The main element of the UTAG counter-proposal is to place a full Professor within the same band as that of the Justice of the Supreme Court. They also demand all the benefits given to members of the judiciary, including free accommodation, medical service, free utilities such as water, electricity and telephone charges, domestic staff such as cook, steward.
According to an informed source the response of UTAG had been communicated earlier on October 19. On the same day, the Cabinet Secretary, Mr. J.A. Danso, after appropriate consultations, wrote pointing out the need for further discussions on the counter-demands. On the same day, the Vice-President convened the meeting attended by the UTAG leadership and the university establishment. It is learnt that the Minister of Defence who is chairmen of the cabinet sub-committee on the crises, and the Minister for Education, had not attended the meeting although they had been invited. The Minister of Finance was not invited. The Memorandum of Understanding is believed to have been signed at the meeting and the vice-president is reported to have had it transmitted to the President to signal his approval for its implementation.
Sources close to the Presidential delegation in New York told the Graphic late Monday night that the President had directed had directed the Memorandum be submitted to the ministers of Finance and Education to analyse its financial implications. The President is also reported to have directed that the ministers consider the implications for all analogous institutions and the wider public service. The analogous institutions mentioned are the Council for Scientific Research, the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, GIMPA, the Ghana Standards Board, the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine, as well as the wider public service.
An angry minister told the Graphic that far from advancing the search for an early settlement, the manner of the intervention seemed to have set things back for sometime. One source of the minister's anger was that while the Vice-President directed that ministers should not speak on the issue, they opened one of the private papers close to him to find details of the meeting covered on the front page. But the major source of anger was how the Vice-President could sign a Memorandum of Understanding without discussing without the cost implications with the Minister of Finance and without considering its effects on other institutions.
When the leadership of the strike-bound University Teachers Association of the Ghana (UTAG) and the country's educational establishment came face to face with the President and his key advisers, we thought the appropriate climate had been created towards the resolution of the pay dispute that has closed the universities for six months now. An well might this have been if no one was disposed to play cheap political gimmicks with the destiny of out universities. Sadly, the climate that has taken weeks and months to build has been soured again by an act that can only be aimed at courting cheap popularity with the university establishment without regard to the interest of the nation. How else could anyone hope to resolve a crises of this nature without considering its cost.
And how do you simply sign on the dotted line without regard to its effects either on analogous institutions or on the wider public sector? If a small public corporation acted in this manner, its management would be assailed for incompetence. We are deeply troubled that such a serious issue should be handled this way. We at the graphic have been at the forefront of the pressure for a solution to this unnecessary dispute. We have been pleased to help mobilise opinion leaders of all persuasions to help the process of achieving a compromise. It grieves us that anyone should want to use the agony of our students as a way of playing to the gallery and scoring cheap political points. We hope all concerned will maintain their composure in the hope that the process can be salvaged before too long.
From Tim Dzamboe, Ho
Two electrification projects under which 41 communities are to be connected to the national grid have taken off in the Volta region. They are the Lower Volta Electrification Project being financed with a Japanese Government grant and an Emergency self-help Electrification Project-three (SHEP-3) being financed by the government.
Mr. Philip Kwasi Addae, Regional Director of the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) disclosed this in an interview. He said under the Lower Volta Project, Adidome, the North Tongu district capital and 19 other communities are to be connected to the grid. Mr. Addae said contracts have been awarded to SAE SADELMI , a foreign company, to undertake the construction of high tension poles whilst six local contractors have been contracted to undertake low tension distribution network in the various towns.
On the SHED-3 Project, Mr. Addae said 21 communities in the Ho-Central, Ho-East and Akatsi/Ketu constituencies are to be connected, adding that approval has been given for the Nkawkaw project.
By Rosemary Ardayfio
The national tuberculosis (tb) programme, in conjuction with Danish development agency (DANIDA), is to embark on a programme to eradicate tuberculosis from the country.
The project, to be implemented under DANIDA's Health Secator Support Programme, is expected to take of by the end of the year. It will involve the administering of a multi-drug therapy with potent drugs produced by Scanpharm, a Danish Pharmaceutical firm. The project will be initially undertaken on a pilot basis in some selected areas in the country and replicated when proven successful. This was made known to the Graphic by Mr. S. Hassen, Marketing Manager of Scanpharm at the company's stand at the medical exhibition being held in Accra. He explained that Scanpharm, following the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, has put together a blister pack of the required daily dose of the drugs used in treating TB.
The pack, which will be distributed locally by DANAFCO Ghana Limited, is to encourage an effective treatment pattern, since the failure by patients to take their tablets as required leads to resistance, thereby making any eradication programme impossible. He was optimistic that the programme will be successful "since Denmark is applying the experienced gained from its programme to eradicate leprosy in India. "Mr. Hanssen emphasised however that past efforts at treating TB failed because some of the drugs used were sub-standard. To avoid this, he said, Scanpharm is collaborating with Ciba Geigy, a Switzerland pharmaceutical company which produces the drug with the highest effective treatment of TB. Aside this, he said, other side effects of the TB drugs have been reduced with the introduction of the blister pack, to ensure treatment compliance, without which treatment would not be effective. Mr. Hanssen said the project when successful will be replicated in other countries.
Living on borrowed time.
That is how gangsters worldwide describe anyone who has been fingered for the bullet but had heard of it and gone into hiding. Often, however, such freedom is transient. And so it became last week for Mrs Afua Amoah Bonsu Amofa who has been "chopping life small" based, allegedly, on the benevolence of a benefactor of her husband.
Afua Amoah Bonsu, Miss Ghana 1989 and wife of Mr. Owuraku Amofa, Deputy Minister for Tourism, was coasting along the highway, probably thinking of the menu of the day, when her Suzuki sidekick number ASA 6262, was blocked suddenly, found herself pulled out and the car taken away by another woman. Ejected along with her were some foodstuffs and vegetables, obvious raw materials for Amofa's dinner, which were seen competing for space by the road side. Behold the "side- attraction" to current rumpus on the EGLE party. For the woman who seized the car is none other than top fashion designer, Mrs Margaret Ofori-Attah, (MAGDANIELLI) who insist that AFA 6262 is the property of her hubby, Mr. Danny Ofori-Attah, one of the four leading members of EGLE Amofa claims he has dismissed. Amofa was reportedly given the care for EGLE official use but since he has access to other cars as a Minister, he passed it on to his darling wife. Mrs Ofori-Attah actually rode in the car to finish her good work in mounting the "Embassy Pleasure" but found to her chagrin, at the end of the show, that her "new" car had been "stolen". She later found it parked at the Police headquarters where it had been driven by some policemen acting on instruction from Amofa who is claiming ownership of the car.
From Dominic Jale, Kumasi
A wife snatcher in Kumasi, Kwaku Boateng, has cut the woman he stole from another man into two separate pieces because of rumours that she was having an affair. Boateng first beat up the woman, Akosua Sophia, mercilessly for being unfaithful to him: but decided to finish her off after she reported to the police, got him arrested and extracted a C30,000 loan she had earlier given him.
Narrating the incident at Sereso Tenpomu, in the Atwima district of Ashanti, an insider Theresa Gmajiyiman, revealed that Sophia's husband left for Europe about two years ago and had since been playing the duty of a dutiful husband by providing Sophia's needs. However, Sophia, a 22-year-old hairdresser believes that woman no be wood and required more than money from her husband and so turned to 24-year-old Boateng for his physical presence. Even though Boateng's mother disapproved of the relationship, Boateng would not heed the several pieces of advice to dissociate himself from Sophia. Boat, as he was affectionately called, rather encouraged Sophia to live with him as man and wife. To show her displeasure, Boat's mother ejected Sophia from her house but Sophia found herself a room at Disco Camp, a village near Tenpomu, where she started operating her hair dressing saloon.
Rumours, however, soon went round that Sophia had found another lover, the rumours enraged Boat who beat up Sophia mercilessly for being wayward. Sophia, feeling cheated, reported the case to the Sereso-Tenpomu police and insisted that Boat should pay an amount of C30,000 which he borrowed from her some time back. Boat was granted bail only after settling the amount. The source disclosed that as Sophia trekked home from the police station where she had collected the C30,000, Boat came out from the bush nearby and cruelly butchered Sophia to death. After killing Sophia, Boat left his cutlass in the pool of blood and hanged himself in the forest. His body was found three days later.
From E.A. Andam, Cape Coast
A 50-year-old nursery teacher of the Mensah Sarbah School at Cape Coast, collapsed and died on the way to the Cape Coast hospital when she saw her husband walking hand-in-hand with his girlfriend in the late hours of Tuesday. The deceased, Mrs Grace Ghartey, a hypertensive, was said to have suddenly collapsed and foamed at the mouth when she came face-toface with her husband and his girlfriend. Mr. Ghartey and the girlfriend, Miss Elizabeth Baidoo, left her to her fate when she sunk on to the street and started foaming at the mouth.
The woman who had been married to Mr. Gyankuwa Ghartey, an accounts officer of the Elmina District Education Office, for 30 years, met her death whilst trying to ascertain the veracity of information she had received that her husband was having an affair with Miss Baidoo, a seamstress. The deceased was said to have contracted a loan of over C1 million to pay for an alleged shortage incurred by her husband at his workplace, but learnt later that her husband had actually used the money to furnish the girlfriend's room. A family source of the deceased said at Cape Coast that Mr. Ghartey was alleged to have told his wife that an amount of C1.6 million which he had packed into a polythene bag, had been stolen from his office. The source said Mr. Ghartey also told the wife that his employers had given him a deadline to refund the money or be dismissed. Mrs Ghartey, in order to save the husband's employment, was said to have contracted over C1 million loan from the teachers credit union to defray the debt.
The source said not long after, a man who know that Mr. Ghartey had misapplied the money, hinted the deceased about it and gave her details about the furniture and the times that Mr. Ghartey visited the girlfriend. According to the source, Mrs Ghartey complained to her aunt resident at Cape Coast, who advised her against taking the matter to heart because she was hypentensive. The aunt was said to have promised the deceased that she would help ascertain the truth, and when proven, would report the matter to the Methodist Church of which the couple were members, for settlement. The source said the deceased heeded the advice but when school was about to re-open, she had wind that her husband had sent some materials to Miss Baidoo to make school uniforms for their children, something which displeased her. The deceased, again reported this to the aunt who again cautioned her and asked her to go home. According to the source, Mrs Ghartey did not seem to be satisfied and, therefore, back home, she asked three of her children to accompany her to the rival's house. They did not, however, meet either Mr. Ghartey or his girlfriend. Mrs Ghartey was said to have parted company with her children who had sought permission to do something in town.
The deceased, while returning home, bumped into the two lovers and requested that Mr. Ghartey should accompany her home. Mr. Ghartey asked her to take the lead and that he would follow later. "This might have given her a shock, for, she suddenly sunk on to the street and started foaming and vomiting". r. Ghartey and his girlfriend were said to have immediately disappeared from the scene. The source said a car pulled up and whilst she was being sent to the hospital with the help of neighbours, she died on he way. "So ended a 30-year marriage out of which five children emerged," the source concluded.
A three-storey building housing pupils of Kings Preparatory International Collapsed on Wednesday at about 10:30 p.m. at Kokomlemle in Accra. The building yet to be completed is being used as a new block of the Kings College International with about 120 pupils.
From Francis Twum, Osino
Final year students of the Osino secondary school in the eastern region have called for the immediate dismissal of their assistant headmaster for demanding money from them before teaching. The Assistant Headmaster, Mr. Acheampong-Sakyi is being accused by the final year students of charging each of them C2,000 before they are allowed to attend chemistry classes.
During a visit to the school last Monday, a number of the final year students complained that since the beginning of the third term, some of the masters have not been attending classes, adding that it has affected their academic work. According to the students, since they are inadequately prepared for the final exams which is only four weeks away, their chances of passing are slum. They accused the Assistant Headmaster, who took over from Mrs Carol Duncan as their science teacher, of taking C2,000 from each student before he or she is allowed to attend the chemistry class. The students said whenever they complained about the illegal fees collected he insults them.
Later in an interview, both the Headmaster, Mr. Antwi and the Assistant Headmaster refuted the allegations and said the students had rather been very apathetic to classes. Mr. Antwi said the performance of the students have not been encouraging. He said during the second term, the school authorities met with the Parent and Teachers association (PTA) to discuss how to organise extra classes for the students during their second term holiday. According to Mr. Antwi, this was agreed on by the PTA and they accordingly informed their wards. The fees for the extra classes was C1,000 a week per each student. "But surprisingly, about 17 students out of the 68 could pay and so we had to stop organising the extra classes since the amount could not meet the transportation expenses of the teachers," he explained.
Mr Acheampong-Sakyi on his part described the allegation as baseless and untrue saying the students themselves are not serious and regular at classes. "They only want to tell lies to tarnish my image," he said. He also denied ever collecting money from the science students before he teaches them. Mr. Ben A. Agyekum, Secretary of the school's PTA when contacted, said as far as he was aware, the only time that the final year students were made to pay fees for extra class was during the second term holiday between July and August, this year.
By Rosemary Ardeyfio - 24/10/95
The head of the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) department of the Korle-Bu teaching hospital has called on the Ministry of Health to encourage more doctors to specialise in ENT to augment the limited number of doctors in the area.
Dr. Danso Adams, who made the appeal in an interview with the Graphic, said there are currently, only five ENT specialists in the country and two specially trained nurses for the management of ENT cases. Three of them are in the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital whilst the other two work at the Komfor Anokye Teaching Hospital, the only two hospitals with ENT facilities.
Dr. Adams said the need for more specialists cannot be over-emphasised since upper respiratory tract infections are the most common complaints of patients who report at health posts, clinics, polyclinics and hospitals country-wide. Dr. Adams said that more nurses should be trained to manage some of the minor ENT ailments at the regional and distric levels, so that only emergency cases would be referred to the teaching hospitals. He noted that due to the current state of affairs, every ENT case, however, minor, has to report to the two teaching hospitals, and cited instances where people had to travel from Hohoe in the Volta Region to Korle-Bu to remove wax from their ears. This service, he said, could easily have been performed in the district hospitals by a trained nurse.