Story by Lilian Owusu-Mensah
A specialist physician and senior resident in gastroenterology and hematology at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Felix Aninagyei, has revealed that open defecation increases the risk of typhoid infection.
He said this is because the disease is one that has a direct relationship with issues of sanitation in the environment.
“Typhoid is quite common in Ghana and is in fact endemic in this country. Typhoid is a disease that has a direct correlation with the sanitation conditions of a locality. And when you have areas where waste disposal is a problem,you are using again open defecation, there’s no good latrine, there’s no good sewage disposal system, then of course you stand the risk of having more of this infection”.
Speaking on GTV’s Breakfast Show, the specialist physician made it clear that anyone that gets infected with typhoid has indirectly come into contact with a faecal matter and the end result can be dreadful if not treated.
“Typhoid fever is an infection, and it is an infection that involves injection of a bacteria that is known as salmonella typhe. Salmonella typhi is usually present in faecal matter. When you have typhoid fever, all it means is that you have taken another man’s faeces. And once the organism enters the body, you know it makes its way into the intestines and if no intervention is put in place, it can lead to quite some dire consequences,” he stated.
In disclosing the possible areas where this infection seems to be prevalent, Dr Aninagyei said, “so in terms of geographical distribution, we have the congested areas and Accra comes in, but the rural settlements tend to also get a lot more infected. So I mean, they have more of the infection. So we have the northern region and some areas in the south western part of the country. These are where the infection seems to be prevalent.”
