The outbreak of a contagious skin disease, suspected to be scabies, which was spreading rapidly through several communities in the Upper East Region, has been brought under control by the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service.
The highly contagious skin infection is reported to have affected more than two hundred poor families in more than ten villages across the poorly-resourced region.
The outbreak of the contagious skin disease, which started from a cut-off village of Dabgre-Bauri in the East Mamprusi municipality has now reached other villages in the Bunkprugu and Yunyoo districts.
There are also reports of the infection in the North East Regional Capital, Nalerigu. But with the timely intervention of the Ghana Health Service in collaboration with the various district and Municipal Assemblies in the area, the situation has been brought under control.
In an interview with GBC’s Radio Ghana, the Municipal Chief Executive for East Mamprusi, Abdul-Nasir Danladi, gave a brief background about the outbreak of the skin disease which started in his Municipality.
Scabies is a contagious skin disease marked by small raised red spots that itch severely. Scabies infections come from the human itch mite. The microscopic human itch mite (Sarcoptes scabiei var.hominis) burrows into the upper layer of a person’s skin, where it lives and lays two to three eggs each day.
