New public health data from the Wenchi Municipality in the Bono Region has exposed a compounding disease burden, with health officials disclosing simultaneous crises in HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and elephantiasis that they say demand integrated community-level intervention rather than siloed responses.
The figures were presented at the Wenchi Municipal Health Directorate’s 2025 Annual Health Performance Review held on February 26, 2026, under the theme “Stakeholder Engagement and Efforts in Achieving Universal Health Coverage.”
Ghana AIDS Commission data released in November 2025 places Wenchi third in the Bono Region for HIV prevalence, with 2,153 people currently living with the virus and a prevalence rate of 2.5 percent. Acting Municipal Health Director George Agyemang described the situation as concerning but manageable, calling for intensified public education and stronger community accountability. He also disclosed that the municipality has recorded an 11 percent TB case rate, a figure that carries particular urgency given the well-established clinical link between TB and HIV, with TB remaining one of the leading causes of death among people living with the virus.
The third strand of Wenchi’s health challenge comes from a neglected tropical disease largely absent from national policy conversations. Out of 4,954 people screened over a six-month period in 2025, 328 tested positive for elephantiasis, locally known as Gyepim. The Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), which conducted the screening, has already administered medication to those confirmed positive.
Dr. Vera Serwaa Opoku, Postdoctoral Research Scientist at KCCR, confirmed that the treatment regimen includes Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug, and that the Municipal Health Directorate would monitor affected individuals for the next two years to manage the disease’s progression. Elephantiasis, caused by parasitic worms transmitted through infected mosquito bites, can produce permanent limb swelling and lifelong disability in untreated cases.
Dr. Opoku urged residents to sleep under insecticide-treated nets, eliminate standing water around homes, and clear weedy surroundings, describing mosquito bite prevention as the single most effective tool against the disease given that early-stage infection is largely invisible.
Agyemang framed the convergence of these conditions as evidence that Wenchi cannot afford a piecemeal approach. “We cannot fight HIV and TB in isolation,” he said. “It requires the involvement of families, faith-based organisations, opinion leaders and the entire community.” Health authorities said stigma reduction, sustained prevention funding, and early testing access remain critical gaps that must be addressed before the municipality can make measurable progress toward universal health coverage.
