Pastoralists Health and Public Health Threat in Ghana

Abstract

Pastoralists move their livestock from pasture to pasture following traditional and historic patterns to move towards available forage for their livestock. The availability of pastures is influenced by the seasons and climate change that dictate the distance of movement of pastoralists; it could be cross-regional or cross-country movement. In a unique public health survey, a large sample of these pastoral nomads in Ghana were interviewed in eleven districts in Ghana. The data was collected mainly through interviews, case studies, and reviews of records of nomads in some selected health facilities. Several clear findings emerge including that: (a) these pastoralists have little engagement or trust with public health, (b) commonly engage the public health sector only as a last resort typically when diseases are in an advanced stage, (c) have a very low awareness of public health practices towards disease awareness, avoidance and treatment, (d) have poor access to public health services and (e) typically consume animals that are known to transmit zoonotic diseases from animals to humans. This means that this population is a relatively sick population and carries untreated diseases. In their engagement with the general populations, they would be expected to transmit these diseases to the general population and could be the source of new disease threats, such as, what emerged with COVID-19. It is encouraged that specific strategies be developed to engage this population to improve health conduct and behavior including sensitizing them to the dangers from contracting zoonotic diseases. While this study focuses only on pastoralists in Ghana, it is likely that other pastoral communities in Africa present similar public health challenges.