Typhoid and cholera are illnesses that spread through contaminated water and food, and both turn up in Accra, cholera sometimes in outbreaks during the rains. They are largely preventable with clean water and good hygiene. Here is how to protect yourself and your family.
How they spread
Both illnesses are carried in water and food that have been contaminated, often where sanitation is poor and clean water is short. You get them by swallowing the bacteria, through dirty water, food handled without clean hands, or produce washed in unsafe water. Understanding that is the key to avoiding them.
Drink safe water
Clean drinking water is the single biggest protection. Use water you know is safe, whether treated, properly sealed sachet or bottled, or water you have boiled or filtered yourself. Be careful with ice and with water of unknown source. During a cholera scare, be extra strict about what you drink and what you brush your teeth with.
Wash your hands
Handwashing with soap breaks the chain, so wash before eating and preparing food and after using the toilet, every time. Keep soap and clean water, or a sanitiser, where you and your family will actually use them. It is simple, and it is one of the most effective things you can do.
Be careful with food
Eat food that is freshly and thoroughly cooked and still hot, and be cautious with raw items and anything that has sat out. Wash fruit and vegetables in safe water, or peel them. When eating out, choose places that look clean and busy, where food is cooked fresh rather than standing.
Know the warning signs
Both illnesses can cause serious symptoms. Cholera brings severe watery diarrhoea that can dehydrate a person dangerously fast, and typhoid brings prolonged fever and feeling very unwell. Do not wait these out. Seek medical help quickly, and with cholera in particular, replacing lost fluids urgently is a matter of real importance.
Clean water, clean hands and carefully handled food prevent most cases of both. Keep those habits, be stricter still during an outbreak, and get medical help fast if serious symptoms appear. Prevention here is genuinely simpler and safer than the cure.
