The villages of Farfar, Sisie, Zabu and Kuka in the Garu-Tampane District, the poorest countryside in the Upper East region of Ghana, are now homes to the largest onchocerciasis (river blindness) victims in Ghana. Onchocerciasis broke out in the area in the late 1980s and early 90s when the black flies invaded these communities leaving scores of villagers permanently blind.
Now, the population of people who suffered from sight impairment after the invasion of black flies is estimated to be about 3,225, according to the documents obtained from the Presbyterian Hospital at Garu, the district capital by this reporter.
The documents also revealed a shocking figure of 6,500 recorded cases of eye conditions from January to June 2012. The cases, according to the hospital documents includes glaucoma, matuned cataract, corneal sears, refractive errors, conjunctivitis, uncitis, corneal ulcers,imatured cataract, foreign bodies, optic atrophy, apthalmia eunatorum and traumatic lesions.
Garu-Tampane District is about 25km away from Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional Capital, with a population of 116,215 according to the 2000 Population and Houses Census. The district also has a growth rate of 1.26 per cent. The area is predominantly farming with about 195 surrounding communities. Fishing is also going on in small scale.
There are quite a number of migrants from other parts of the country, especially the south, and the neighbouring countries of Togo and Burkina Faso. The predominant tribes in the District are Kusasi, Busangas, Mosis, Bimobas and Mamprusi’s. On the average there are 7 persons per household. Women are generally less active in decision-making and income generating activities.
The victims who are mostly women, children and the aged included the chief of Farfar community who now rules his people without his sight and walk with the aid of sticks are living testimonies to the devastating and painful ochocerciasis diseases and or eye infection conditions.
Bonkafarigu/Farfar Electoral Area alone has a population of about 1,900 according to the 2010 Population and Houses Census in which half of that number had suffered various eye conditions leaving a score permanently impaired.
Though the government in the 80s frequently fumigated the area against black flies invasion, the present of the black flies in the area still pose a threat to the people, according to the assembly member for the area.
Speaking to this reporter in an exclusive interview, the Assembly member for Bonkafarigu/Farfar Electoral Area, Mr. Joseph Duutt Yennukua said that, though the previous fumigations, which, were done in the 80s have sterilized the potency of the black flies to transmit onchocerciasis to the people, their present at the area still pose a threat to the livelihoods of the communities.
He pointed out that, in months of September and October, farmers could not go to their farms without fully covering their bodies, and that the spots of the skin bitten by the fly turn black. He was not surprised the area still records the highest rate of eye infections in country.
Mr. Yennukua said that, in spite of several reports the communities made to the authorities about the present of the black flies and their destructive activities nothing is done about it.
He appealed to the governments, Non governmental organisations and international development agencies and individuals to support the communities to fight the black flies to free them from their destructive activities. Their activities, according to the assembly member were worrying to the affected communities.
- Some Onchocerciasis victims and Ophthalmic nurse Atangiba Mohammed examining eye condition patient: Photo: Npong Francis
The principal Nurse in charge of Eye Ward in the Presbyterian Hospital in Garu, Alhaji Mohammed Atangiba disclosed that, the hospital recorded from January to June 2012 a total number of 6,500 eye conditions most of which are glaucoma, matuned cataract, corneal sears, refractive errors, conjunctivitis, uncitis, optic atrophy, apthalmia eunatorum and traumatic lesions.
Out of this number, half of the people are likely to suffer permanent impairment if medical operation is not done quickly on them. the Ophthalmic nurse said that, a larger number of the population in Garu-Tampane, Bulsa, Paga, Farfar, widana, and worikambo communities were living with permanent impairment through onchocerciasis, glaucoma or other forms of eye infections.
The frustrated ophthalmic nurse whose small dark office tagged behind the general hospital stated that eye conditions are now critical in the area and needing urgent attention.
Alhaji Atangiba who could not also tell exactly the causes of the soaring eye conditions in the district disclosed to this reporter that, the hospital is over burdened with eye cases some of which are beyond their capacities and have to be referred to other health facilities.
“The majority of the people are poor, eye care services and operations are also not covered by health insurance, so a lot of the people, poor women , children and the aged will not accept refers because they could not afford to pay for the cost of operations”, he said.
This however, left hundreds of people particularly women and children in the area permanently impaired saying, the situation prevailing in the area is worrying and needing attention from the government and development partners.
He lamented that the facility was the only nearest hospital to the communities noted for eyes conditions, it was under resourced to handle the cases. The hospital, the principal nurse disclosed lack ophthalmologist to perform surgery on the patients leaving some of them to suffer permanent impairment.
Alhaji Atangiba, who is an ophthalmic nurse, said that there are only two eye specialists in the Upper East Region, who services are high in demand, limiting their ability to cover a larger number of people.
- Villagers que in front of Ophthalmic Nurse office (Presbyterian Hospital Eye ward-Garu) for their turn: Photo: Npong Francis
He said that, this informed his outfit to take primary eye care services and education that includes the admission of avermectin, an anti-parasitic drug to the doorsteps of the people. With transportation, financial and staff difficulties, the Presbyterian primary eye care education unit is granting to a halt.
He however appealed to the government, NGOs, individuals, and international development partners to support the facility with hospital equipments, transportation, and wards to support their primary eye care programme to give hope to the vulnerable people who were suffering from various eye conditions.
The principal nurse who oversees minor infections or eye conditions and operates in small dark ward that needed urgent expansion mentioned villages such as Woriyanga, Farfar, Sisie, Songo, Bugri, Binduri, Zabu, Pusiga, and Basyonde among other communities whose people mostly poor and vulnerable suffered from onchocerciasis disease.
He told the Enquirer in an interview that the hospital lacks wards, eye operation theatre, Ophthalmologist, and equipment and appealed to the government, individual and NGOs to support the facility to render quality service to the poor.
Onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness and Robles’ disease, according to Wikipedia is believed to be the world’s second-leading infectious disease that causes blindness. The black flies transmit onchocerciasis disease and it is infectious among humans. It causes severe inflammatory response in the eye that leaves many people virtually impaired. The larval nematodes spread throughout the body. When the worms die, their Wolbachia symbionts are release that triggers a host response that can cause severe itching in the eye, and can destroy optical tissue in the human eye if not treated immediately.
- Amina has been blind for 25 years during invasion of blackflies in Farfar, Photo: Npong Francis
The vast majority of infections occur in Sub-Sahara Africa, Central America, Yemen, South America and is said to have left an estimated population of about 18 million people suffer from onchocerciasis, with approximately 270,000 cases of blindness related to the infection.
In the 1970s, when investigations of onchocerciasis in the endemic villages and districts of West Africa began, scientists made astonishing and disturbing discoveries. More than 60 percent of the savanna population carried the parasite; 10 percent of the adult population and half of the males over 40 years of age were blind, 30 percent of the people were visually impaired, and early signs of onchocerciasis were common among children (WHO 1973, 1987, 1995a).
Scientists revealed the huge socioeconomic consequences of the high infection rates they had found.As village blindness reached epidemic proportions, it left too few able-bodied people to tend fields. Food shortages and economic collapse forced residents to abandon homelands in fertile river valleys. Moving to hardscrabble highlands and forested areas offered some protection from further infection, but then farmers struggled with poor soil and water shortages on overcrowded lands. Onchocerciasis often ultimately sent a prosperous community into poverty. Armed with this new knowledge about the economic impact, and with many fertile lands and water sources off-limits because of endemic onchocerciasis, development agencies made the disease a priority.
The river blindness disease had left a remarkable disturbing footprint in Garu-Tampane District in the Upper East Region of Ghana submerging the communities under vulnerabilities in the wake of climate change and global warming.
- Principal Ophthalmic Nurse in-charge of Presbyterian Hospital at Garu, Alhaji Atangiba Mohammed entering his ward to attend to hundreds of villagers stack inside waiting for eye services; Photo: Npong Francis.
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