This could negatively impact their health with respect to immunity and growth

faltering, particularly stunting. The observations emphasize the need for aflatoxin exposure intervention strategies in high-risk countries, possibly targeted at the weaning period. Therefore there is a critical need to educate mothers on the dangers of mycotoxins exposure and to develop an economically PFI-2 feasible strategy to eliminate exposure of children fed homemade weanimix to aflatoxin and fumonisin. Acknowledgement The study was supported by a grant from The Peanut Collaborative Research Program, TAM 149 USAID. The Authors are also grateful to Mr. Ebenezer Ofori-Atta of Clinical Pathology department, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research for his technical support.
There are lessons to be learnt from cholera outbreaks in Ghana. In his inaugural lecture, Professor G. A. Ashitey1 provides an account on the first cholera epidemic of 1970 in Ghana. Cholera outbreak in West Africa was first reported in Guinea. Although denied by the Government of Guinea the World selleck compound Health Organisation had to break protocol and establish for the first time that “the health of the world’s people is more important than the

sovereignty of member countries.” The first case of cholera in Ghana was in a Togolese national in transit at the Kotoka international Airport from Guinea.2 Two of the worst hit sites in Ghana, subsequently, were the fishing villages of Akplabanya (in the then Ada District) and Nyanyano (Winneba District). Cholera Vasopressin Receptor in these areas appeared to have been “smuggled in” by relatives of dead Ghanaian fishermen from Togo and Guinea, respectively, for burial despite a sanitary cordon on Ghana’s borders. Attempts at controlling cholera

were not successful because the needed long term approaches, such as potable water supply, proper disposal of solid waste etc. were not implemented. Cholera is now endemic with cyclical epidemics. These epidemics are now predictable but sanitary reforms have been inactive, ineffective and local authorities have failed in applying necessary bye-laws on food hygiene, sanitation, environmental health and waste disposal. Cholera in Ghana is an urban problem with high impact on the urban poor. The unprecedented unregulated growth of urban areas has resulted in poor environmental conditions, lack of access to clean potable water and excruciating challenges in waste disposal. Urban authorities need to re-examine their strategies with a focus on explicitly pro-poor community-led orientation3 to provide lasting solutions to the now nearly annual epidemics of cholera. Ebola Virus Disease The reality of Ebola Virus Disease occurring in Ghana has been heightened by the relentless spread of the disease and its associated high case fatality rate as seen in the initial three countries – Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Nigeria and Senegal have also acquired cases through importation from the index countries.