Mr. Rocky Tettedzie, a Physician Assistant at the Pleasant Medical Centre in Ashaiman-Middle East, has advised the general population to carefully wash their veggies in order to reduce their risk of contracting typhoid fever.
He continued by saying that due to a lack of irrigation infrastructure, some vegetable growers have started planting next to drains and watering their crops with drain water, which exposes consumers to a range of diseases.
While speaking on the weekly “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility! An initiative of the Ghana News Agency’s Tema Regional Office designed to promote health-related communication and establish a venue for the dissemination of health information to influence people’s individual health decisions.
The Tema Regional Office of the Ghana News Agency developed the public health advocacy platform “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility” to examine the components of four different health communication strategies: informing, instructing, convincing, and advocating.
The physician assistant at Pleasant Medical Centre responded to a query about how to handle such vegetables to avoid consuming potentially contaminated vegetables that could result in typhoid by explaining that the bacteria that cause typhoid would mostly dwell on the vegetable, which effect could be reduced through proper washing before consumption.
He said that the vegetables must first be washed with clean water and that the person doing the washing must wash their hands with soap and water before touching the vegetables.
In order to obtain a thorough wash, he continued, salt or vinegar should also be applied. By doing this, he said, the bacteria would be destroyed and typhoid fever wouldn’t be spread to the person eating the vegetable.
Furthermore, Mr. Tettedzie recommended clients to be mindful of where they get their lunches, adding they should feel comfortable doing so or, if practical, prepare it at home and bring it to work.
Mr. Tettedzie talked about typhoid, a potentially lethal bacterial disease that can be spread either directly by coming into contact with human carriers or inadvertently by consuming tainted food or water.
He went on to say that the illness has symptoms similar to those of malaria and other infections and has an incubation period of seven to twenty-one days, yet due to the number of germs in some persons, they may start showing symptoms as soon as three days after exposure.
The public was advised by the physician assistant to always visit the hospital for medical exams before starting any medication. The medical assistant emphasised that only such testing, which can involve blood and stool cultures, could reliably identify an illness like typhoid.
Mr. Aaron Mensah, operations manager at The Pleasant Medical Centre, promoted the safe handling and disposal of medical waste.
Francis Ameyibor, Regional Manager of Ghana News Agency in Tema, made a call for health awareness, emphasizing the importance of what “we eat, drink, and source; we must be conscious of unhealthy lifestyles and their implications and avoid them.”
A caution was also issued by Mr. Ameyibor regarding the rise in sedentary habits and inactivity that is associated with our contemporary way of life. We appear to be less active, according to new modes of transportation, sedentary work conditions, and other advancements.
-CDA Consult || Contributor
