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Growing fears and suspicion of an outbreak of cholera in the Dormaa Central Municipality has been a source of concern and anxiety among residents recently. The fears have been heightened by recent reports that 18 people were rushed to the Dormaa Presbyterian Hospital on suspicion of being infected with the disease but health officials have vehemently denied those reports as untrue. Though the Municipality has not officially recorded any case, many people believed there might be reported cases but the authorities had kept mute over it. A number of residents interviewed by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Dormaa-Ahenkro on Monday suspected that the Authorities were trying to cover up for political reasons by failing to paint the true picture of the state of affairs to avoid discrediting the current political administration. Many generally were of the view that bad sanitary practices in some parts of the Municipality coupled with the authorities� lack of concern to ensure the carting away of refuse containers, which had been grounded for weeks at vantage points, might have occasioned the possible outbreak of the disease. When the GNA contacted Dr. Emmanuel Zakpalah Dery, Acting Medical Administrator, Dormaa Presbyterian Hospital, he admitted that, though 18 people were rushed to the hospital, none of them had cholera, and that, they rather had diarrhea. �Many people report to our facility with diarrhea cases, which is a disease that has many causes, but we do not have any equipment to test their stool, blood and urine sample of such patients to ascertain if they had cholera. �So what we did was our laboratory collaborated with the Municipal Directorate of Health Services to take samples which were later sent to Sunyani for investigation,� Dr. Dery explained. He said his outfit was yet to contact the health directorate to find out the outcome of the sample test. Madam Florence Iddrisa, the Municipal Director of Health confirmed that the Dormaa Presbyterian Hospital did not have a reference laboratory and the capacity to carry out test for cholera. Madam Iddrisa however refused to disclose the results saying �I can�t disclose the findings to you because I need to discuss it first with the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) before making it public�. When the GNA questioned whether she was either playing politics with people�s health or trying to hide information from the public, Madam Iddrisa responded in the negative. �I am not trying to hide information from you because we are still doing investigating the samples which we are not through with it yet.�