Dorothy Yeboah-manu

Studies have revealed high degree of local beliefs and practices associated with wound dressing in Ghana. Some of these beliefs and practices contradict modern biomedical wound care and management practices. There is therefore the need to conduct socio-cultural research on local beliefs and practices associated with wound management in the study area to understand the rational for these beliefs and practices to aid clinical management of wounds to reduce secondary infections among patients. This was an ethnographic study, in all, 20 in-depth interviews were conducted: 10 each with Traditional healers and Buruli ulcer patients respectively. Observations were done on Buruli Ulcer patients to document how they integrate traditional and modern wound management practices in day to day handling of their wounds. Content analysis was done after the data were coded thematically to select representative narratives for presentation. A common belief among traditional healers was that some wound...

To investigate the microbial quality of foods sold on streets of Accra and factors predisposing to their contamination. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 117 street vendors on their vital statistics, personal hygiene, food hygiene and knowledge of foodborne illness. Standard methods were used for the enumeration, isolation, and identification of bacteria. Most vendors were educated and exhibited good hygiene behaviour. Diarrhoea was defined as the passage of > or =3 stools per day) by 110 vendors (94.0%), but none associated diarrhoea with bloody stools; only 21 (17.9%) associated diarrhoea with germs. The surroundings of the vending sites were clean, but four sites (3.4%) were classified as very dirty. The cooking of food well in advance of consumption, exposure of food to flies, and working with food at ground level and by hand were likely risk factors for contamination. Examinations were made of 511 menu items, classified as breakfast/snack foods, main d...