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Tamale, Ghana – Onchocerciasis also known as river blindness is the bane of the Naaga community in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region of Ghana.
The disease can lead to sudden blindness when one is bitten by black fly, an insect that has made the Naga river in the Naaga community its breeding ground.
Dr. Jessica Samira Bogobiri, founder and Executive Director of health nonprofit, Cornerstone Medical Outreach (CORMO), has therefore urged residents of the Naaga community to seek early medical treatment at their health centre whenever they fall sick.
She said seeking early medical attention would enable health professionals diagnose “potentially serious conditions” so that they can be referred early to the municipal hospital in Navrongo.
Dr. Bogobiri said these in an interview with SavannahNewsOnline after CORMO organised a free healthcare and donation program in the Naaga community in December to mark the end of the year 2023.
According to the Family Physician Specialist, the Naaga community was chosen because it is a deprived area with “only a health centre and very bad road to the nearest hospital in the municipal capital in Navrongo which is about 2.5hrs by car.”
“It has a river which is infested with the black fly that causes onchocerciasis (river blindness). Other conditions such as skin infections, malaria, respiratory tract infections etc are prevalent. These informed our decision to choose Naaga for the outreach this time”, she added.
The CORMO team, she noted, also gave
health education on the causes, prevention and treatment of various diseases including malaria, skin infections, respiratory tract infections and especially onchocerciasis.
Over 1,000 people of the Naaga community including children and adults received free medical screening.
About 400 children benefited from free pairs of footwears (350 brand new) and 450 pieces of clothes. About 380 aged men and women benefited from footwear (200 pairs), cloths (100 pieces) and clothes (250 pieces).
An estimated 100 young girls also received menstrual caps and were educated on good menstrual hygiene.
Since its inception in 2017, CORMO has done about 12 medical outreaches across different communities in Northern Ghana.
Meanwhile, apart from the provision of free healthcare delivery, the Naaga community benefited more from the clothes and footwear donations which is always a component of the outreach program by CORMO thereby making the community standout in all the organisation’s previous outreaches.
By SavannahNewsOnline.Com/Kusiele Ziem
