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From its first reported case of cholera in August this year, the Mamprobi Polyclinic has recorded more than 700 cases. According to the Principal Nursing Officer of the polyclinic, Mrs Matilda Allotey-Annan, out of the number, six died on arrival and four while on admission. She said the statistics revealed that averagely the polyclinic recorded close to 23 cases of cholera daily, or one case every one hour. Mrs Allotey-Annan made this known when the Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpujie, visited the hospital and presented it with some assorted items to support its healthcare delivery plans. The items presented included 30 mattresses, 38 pieces of blankets, 50 cartons of water, five cartons of washing detergents and buckets. Situation at Mamprobi As of the time of the visit, five patients had been admitted to the polyclinic with cases of cholera. The new patients were receiving treatment under an open tent as their relatives held up drips for them. Cholera patients who had been at the clinic for long periods were seen lying on benches without mattresses. Mrs Allotey-Annan said many of the cholera cases were reported during weekends and attributed the phenomenon to the high patronage of social events during that period. According to authorities at the polyclinic, a sizeable number of the patients who arrived at the clinic were from Shiabu, Glefe, Korle Gonnor, Korle-Bu, Dansoman and as far as Amasaman, Kasoa and communities in the Ga South District. Mrs Allotey-Annan said owing to the large number of cases that were reported at the clinic, they sometimes run out of drips for the patients. Battle for dead bodies According to Mrs Allotey-Annan, the polyclinic currently faces the challenge of dealing with relations of dead patients who troop in daily to request for the bodies. She recalled that it took the timely intervention of the Mamprobi Police to calm down family members who had trooped to the clinic to demand the body of a cholera patient who had died for burial. �The family came in with red bands tied to all parts of their bodies shouting and chanting to be given the body of their deceased relative. The police had to be here to calm them down for the body to be released without incident,� she recounted. Mrs Allotey-Annan has, therefore, urged the public to give hospital authorities space to properly handle the bodies of their deceased relatives before releasing them. She also charged the AMA to ensure that refuse behind the polyclinic was evacuated as soon as possible. We will continue to support The Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpujie, expressed his gratitude to the staff of the clinic for the hard work they had put in over the past few months. He gave an assurance that the assembly would continue to collaborate with hospitals in the metropolis to minimise the spread of the disease. �We have to continue working together and intensify education on the disease,� he said.