Heavy Metal Contamination of Soils around a Hospital Waste Incinerator Bottom Ash Dumps Site.

Waste incineration is the main waste management strategy used in treating hospital waste in many developing countries. However, the release of dioxins, POPs, and heavy metals in fly and bottom ash poses environmental and public health concerns. To determine heavy metal (Hg, Pb, Cd, Cr, and Ag) in levels in incinerator bottom ash and soils 100 m around the incinerator bottom ash dump site, ash samples and surrounding soil samples were collected at 20 m, 40 m, 60 m, 80 m, 100 m, and 1,200 m from incinerator. These were analyzed using the absorption spectrophotometer method. The geoaccumulation (I geo) and pollution load indices (PLI) were used to assess the level of heavy metal contamination of surrounding soils. The study revealed high concentrations in mg/kg for, Zn (16417.69), Pb (143.80), Cr (99.30), and Cd (7.54) in bottom ash and these were above allowable limits for disposal in landfill. The study also found soils within 60 m radius of the incinerator to be polluted with the metals. It is recommended that health care waste managers be educated on the implication of improper management of incinerator bottom ash and regulators monitor hospital waste incinerator sites.

Health Policy, Health Systems Research and Analysis Capacity Assessment of the School of Public Health, University of Ghana.

INTRODUCTION: Health Policy and Systems Research and Analysis (HPSR&A) is an applied science that deals with complexity as it tries to provide lessons, tools and methods to understand and improve health systems and health policy. It is defined by the kinds of questions asked rather than a particular methodology. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to assess capacity and capacity strengthening needs for HPSR&A conduct and teaching in the University of Ghana School of Public Health (UG-SPH). We conceptualized dynamically inter-related levels of capacity as contextual, institutional and individual. METHODS: The study had a cross sectional, mixed methods design. Data collection involved desk review, ,an in-depth interview, focus group discussions (FGD) and an interviewer administered questionnaire with closed and open ended items. Netmap was used as a tool in the FGD. FINDINGS: At all levels, HPSR&A capacity exists in Ghana but is somewhat fragile. The fragility reflects in part contextual challenges related to national income and priorities as well as the fact that globally HPSR&A remains an emerging field. At the contextual level, Institutions involved in some way or other in HPSR&A were part of larger organizations with broader mandates. Only a handful of SPH staff indicated that they specifically do teaching and /or research related to HPSR&A. CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS: There is a need to raise awareness of the field of HPSR&A and its potential contributions to health sector development; build upon already existing contextual, institutional and individual capacity; and also attract and develop the next generation of researchers and teachers.

Possible contributing factors to the paucity of yellow fever epidemics in the Ashanti region of Ghana, west Africa.

Yellow fever virus vectors identified in the Ashanti region of Ghana included Aedes aegypti, Aedes africanus, Aedes luteocephalus and Aedes vittatus. Other mosquito species, unrelated to yellow fever transmission, identified in this study included Culex tigripes, Culex thalassius, Culex decens, Culex tarsalis, Anopheles gambiae, Anopheles stephansi and Toxorynchites brevipalpis. Factors generally known to influence yellow fever transmission were also studied in the Ashanti region. These included Aedes mosquito larval indices, biting or man-contact rates, rainfall, relative humidity and duration of sunshine. Calculated values for these factors were found to be far below internationally accepted threshold values, due, perhaps, to the vast distribution, resilience and preferential predatory propensity of the larvae of T. brevipalpis, a mosquito species we found exclusively in the Ashanti region of Ghana, for A. aegypti larvae. Other predators of mosquito larvae encountered included Notonecta (Nepa species), Hydromerta, Culex tigripes, Belostoma and Lispa. The observed paucity of yellow fever outbreaks in the Ashanti region of Ghana may, in the main, be due to the preponderance resilience and selective predatory propensity and preference of T. brevipalpis for A. aegypti larvae. Furthermore, the observed presence of other predators which prey on A. aegypti larvae in the study areas, the low larval indices and the low man-vector contact rates recorded as well as the high prevalence of Group B antibodies found in the blood of the population of this region may also be contributory to the paucity of yellow fever outbreaks in the Ashanti region.