Cutaneous Ulcers in Primary School Children in The South Tongu District Of The Volta Region

Abstract

The South Tongu District Health Administration has observed that skin diseases and ulcers have been featuring prominently in their top ten diseases reported at the OPD. Indeed for the past two years they ranked second among the various diseases reported and available records showed that the trend in 1995 may not be any different. The nature and magnitude of the problem of ulcers is not known to the health authorities since the cases of ulcers cannot be disaggregated from other skin disease with which they are grouped on the reporting forms currently in use. It is therefore important to find out the prevalence of ulcers in the district and their characteristics such as the types of ulcers that are predominant, who are affected and what kinds of treatment are applied on them. This would give an insight to the problem and what intervention measures to undertake. This study was undertaken to investigate the prevalence of ulcers among primary school children, compare the prevalence among school children living within 1.5km of the Volta river to that of school children living further away from the river and to describe the characteristics of the ulcers. The results would serve as a basis for a more extensive study on the ulcers in the district.