Physical and chemical characteristics of water and soil in buruli ulcer endemic and non-endemic areas in the Western, Central and Northern Regions of Ghana

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Date
2012
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Abstract
To determine the relationship between water quality, soil chemistry and Buruli ulcer incidence, water and soil samples were collected from five communities in Ghana within the dry season in 2010 and the wet season in 2011: four communities in the southern part of Ghana (three Buruli-endemic communities: Pokukrom, Betenase, and Ayanfuri, and one control: Kedadwen) and one non-endemic community (Nangruma) in the north. Water samples were analyzed for the following parameters, pH, Conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, alkalinity, total hardness, some selected anions (SO42-, Cl-, PO43- and NO2-) and some trace metals (As, Cd, Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb and Se). Soil samples were also analyzed for pH, Conductivity and trace metals. The UV-Visible Spectrophotometer was used to determine the selected anions, Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer was used to determine the trace metals and titrimetry was employed to measure alkalinity, hardness and chloride content. Results from analysis of pH and other related physicochemical parameters revealed that, mean pH values for all the water bodies in the dry season was (5.78) and (5.68) for the wet season water samples. Non-endemic community (Nangruma) recorded basic pH (7.12). Mean arsenic concentrations for all the water bodies in the dry season stood at (0.04 mg/L) and (10.18 mg/L) for the wet season. Mean cadmium concentrations for all the water bodies in the wet season was (0.05mg/L), dry season samples did not contain detectable levels of cadmium. The following were recorded for copper, zinc, selenium, lead (Cu dry season (0.06 mg/L), Cu wet season (0.19 mg/L), Zn dry season (0.21 mg/L), Zn wet season (0.40 mg/L), Se dry season (0.01mg/L), Se wet season (0.01mg/L), Pb wet season (0.16mg/L) dry season water samples did not contain detectable levels of lead. Mean phosphate levels for all the water bodies in the dry season stood at (13.32 mg/L) and (8.56 mg/L) for the wet season. Iron and arsenic were the highest trace metals recorded in the analyzed soil samples (5642.5 mg/kg and 66.55 mg/kg) respectively. From the results, all the water bodies in the dry and wet seasons recorded slightly acidic pH (pH<7). In all locations, gold-mining pits and pools of stagnant water bodies have a significantly different chemical signature than rivers and naturally occurring swamps; trace metals, thought to aid in the growth of M. ulcerans, are present in much higher concentrations in mining pits and stagnant water bodies than in other water body. Phosphate may also be a control. When the levels of physicochemical parameters during the study were compared seasonally, nearly in all cases, concentrations of trace metals levels in samples collected in the wet season were considerably higher compared to the dry season samples. Despite this, few differences in chemical compositions between the endemic and non- endemic communities does exist, implying that other variables such as human behavior may also in a way control the onset of Buruli ulcer.
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A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY in Analytical Chemistry
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