Victims of Appiatse explosion will suffer long-term effects – GHS

Dr. Kofi Issah, the Director, Family Health Division, Ghana Health Service (GHS), says some victims of the Appiatse explosion will live effects of the explosion years to come.

“The blast will definitely have a long-term effect. Today somebody might tell you I am quite okay, then five years down the line, he notices there is something very odd about him and he remembers there was some small shrapnel which came and lodged somewhere in him at that time.

“We’ve always been hearing from our grandfathers saying ‘we’ve been hearing from our grandfathers who say, somebody came back from the second world war and never realised there was a bullet lodged in him until one day he gets sick, and they find a strange object.

“What is this object? They say it’s a bullet. Can they remove it? Sometimes they just leave it in peace…,” he said.

”Dr. Issah said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency when the United Nations Population Fund donated 1000 packs of dignity kits to be distributed to the victims of the explosion.

The kits contained under wears, toothpastes, and brushes, shaving sticks, bathing, and washing soap, sanitary pads, and condoms among others.

The Director said COVID-19 gave the GHS an opportunity to develop a manual on how to deal with humanitarian emergencies and critically assess victim communities, their surroundings, district, region, and the nation at large to minimize the effects of such occurrences.

That was being done for Appiatse, he said, adding that on case-by-case basis, the Service would join other teams to assess what the victims would need as the effects could even affect generations.

On Thursday January 20, 2022, an explosion occurred along the Tarkwa-Bogoso-Ayamfuri road after a truck transporting mining explosives was involved in a crash.

The explosion killed 14 persons and injured 179 others.

Source: GNA