The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has stated that the Upper East Region holds the highest count of elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis) cases in Ghana.
Around 2,373 confirmed elephantiasis cases, constituting roughly a third of the country’s total instances, have been identified in the region.
Speaking to the media, the Desk Officer for GHS’s Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) program, Bright Alomatu, stated that despite the endemic nature of elephantiasis across all 15 municipalities and districts in the Upper East Region, efforts are underway to curb its progression.
He linked the region’s widespread elephantiasis to the influence of dams and irrigation projects.
“In all, we have registered close to 6,000 cases across the whole country, the Upper East Region has 2,373, those are those we found. There could even be more out there. Again, it’s not only the Upper East Region that has the condition. Maybe the high numbers may be due to the pressures of many dams, and irrigation projects because the disease is spread by the very anopheles mosquito that transmits malaria.”
“We have done more work in the Upper East Region than all the regions. It’s also possible that if we do a thorough search in other regions, their number could increase,” the Desk Officer for the Ghana Health Service’s NTDs programme said.