Category: Medical

Takuka (NE/R)- Global Communities, under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Health (W4H) project, has facilitated for two communities to attain Open Defecation Free (ODF) Sanitised level ensuring improved sanitation practices.

The communities are Takuka and Zangum-Bouduri located in the West Mamprusi Municipality of the North East Region.

On July 13, this year, Takuka and Zangum-Bouduri were successfully verified and declared ODF sanitised by a joint team of two independent verifiers and a Regional Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee on Sanitation (RICCS) representative from the North East Regional Coordinating Council.

This was the first time a community had been verified and declared ODF Sanitised in the history of the country since she adopted the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Concept under the Rural Sanitation Model and Strategy for basic sanitation improvement in rural communities.

For a community to be declared ODF Sanitised, every household and public gathering place must have an improved latrine and hygienically maintained latrine, no open defecation is practised, all latrines have handwashing facilities with evidence of hand washing by all after defecation, no overgrowth of weeds, animals dropping controlled to a minimum, surroundings generally clean, all households practise proper food hygiene and also hygienic water storage and use among other indicators.

Takuka has 13 households with a population of about 160 people and their main economic activities are fishing and farming while Zangum-Bouduri has a population of about 97 people and 7 houses and their main economic activity is crop farming.

The Takuka and Zangum-Bouduri were among 11 ODF communities that were identified and supported with model latrines under the W4H project.

The support to them followed the effect of heavy rains and flooding they experienced in July and August, 2020 that resulted in the destruction and collapse of almost all latrines in the communities.

Global Communities, using the national guidelines for supporting the poor and the vulnerable, intervened and supported the communities to encourage them to sustain their ODF status, which eventually led to the two improving the hygiene conditions and moving up the ODF ladder.

The ODF Sanitised community is the third level in the ODF category in the country’s ODF Verification Protocol and it is the penultimate a community can attain after ODF Basic and ODF (Level 2).

This status, if sustained for 36 months, the communities would then become Sustainable Sanitised, the highest in the ODF ladder.

In facilitating the attainment of this level, Global Communities partnering with the West Mamprusi Municipal Environmental Health and Sanitation Department, carried out series of activities including orientation of the Environmental Health Officers, re-triggering of the communities, training of natural leaders, and supporting RICCS monitoring in addition to the weekly routine monitoring by the Environmental Health Agents.

Mr Dominic Dapaah, Coordinator for Global Communities, who led a team to assess the sanitation situation in the two communities following their attainment of ODF Sanitised status, encouraged community members to sustain the progress made and appealed to “Opinion leaders, chiefs and natural leaders and every member of the community to try to maintain this for a long time so that we can still be the first in the country to achieve the next level, which is the final one; what we call the Sustainable Sanitised.”

Mr Anass Iddrisu, West Mamprusi Municipal Environmental Health Officer said the two communities had become model communities in the country, saying, their attainment of the ODF Sanitised status would positively impact development in the area.

Mr Akwesitse Agbe, a Community Leader at Takuka said “Previously, sanitation was a challenge in the community. Our children fell ill all the time. When the Global Communities brought the W4H project to our community, we started following the sanitation guidelines. Anybody who defecated in the open was fined. We realised that the sanitation situation in our community started improving. Now, we are happy with the level of sanitation in our community.”

Other community members were happy at the new feat chalked by their communities and gave assurance that it would be sustained to ensure that they would all remain healthy to attract development projects to the area.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Sandema (U/E), – Dr Bertrand Agilinko, the Acting Medical Superintendent of the Sandema Hospital in the Builsa North Municipality of the Upper East Region has called on health professionals in the facility not to deny patients without face masks health care services.

“You cannot refuse health care to patients because they are not wearing masks, if anything goes wrong, you can’t defend yourself. But there are relatives who come to visit and we must insist that they have their masks on during their short stay in the ward”.

Dr Agilinko, who was speaking at a staff durbar organised by the management of the Hospital, said; “I have noted with very grave concern that because most of us do not like wearing the masks when the patients and relatives are also not wearing masks, we are unable to talk.”

He said no one expected the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and indicated that in spite of the unexpected outbreak, the facility had properly managed the spread of the virus.

Even though the facility had no case of COVID-19, he stressed that the fight against the virus was not over, and urged staff of the Hospital not to relent on their efforts at checking the spread of the virus in the facility and the Municipality at large.

“COVID-19 is still there, let’s be very careful,” the Acting Medical Superintendent cautioned the staff.

Dr Agilinko further delved into the issue of breast cancer, which was one of the conditions many members of the public paid less attention to and said the Hospital had over the past weeks screened people for breast cancer.

He disclosed that the facility was better prepared to handle screening for breast and cervical cancers, “We have sent two of our staff for training on screening for cervical cancer. The unit will be in place in the shortest possible time.”

Dr Agilinko used the opportunity to advise his staff to relate well with their patients and clients, noting that the attitude of some staff of the Hospital was a concern among some sections of the public.

Mr Stephen Adombire, the Acting Deputy Director of Nursing Services (DDNS) of the Hospital, noted that the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic had posed some challenges to service delivery.

He commended nurses and midwives for their commitment over the years and emphasized the need for staff to be customer-care sensitive to recapture the lost glory of the Hospital.

He said there was more room for improvement in terms of what they could do as nurses and midwives to improve on health care delivery, “We know what we are supposed to do as nurses, we all know the time we are supposed to report for work.

“It is not in the best interest of our patients and our own colleagues when we are expected to be at work by 0700hours for the morning shift, 1300hours for the afternoon shift, or 1900hours for the night shift to take over, and we are not.

“That is not the kind of environment we want to have. Those who report early to work please keep up the good work for we know the unique contribution that we make to improving patient outcome,” Mr Adombire said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Adaklu Tsriefe (V/R), Aug 1, GNA – Out of 13,237 people who were tested for suspected malaria cases in the Adaklu district between January and June, this year, 5,522 tested positive.

During the same period in 2020, 8,721 people were tested and 3,490 tested positive.

Mr. Robert Bedie, Adaklu District Malaria Focal Person disclosed this at a one-day Malaria Community Sensitization Intervention Workshop at Adaklu Tsriefe in the Adaklu District.

It was organised by GOSANET Foundation, a health NGO in the Adaklu district in collaboration with the Adaklu District Health Directorate with funding from The Global Fund through the National Malaria Control Programme.

It was attended by about 40 participants including traditional and religious leaders, health workers, assembly members, and community volunteers from some selected communities in the district.

Mr. Bedie said 67 pregnant women in the district also tested positive for the disease in the first half of 2020 while 94 tested positive between January and June 2021.

He said the increase in malaria cases in the district could be due to a number of factors including non-adherence to treatment protocols, insecticide resistance challenges, inadequate local funds for fighting the menace, and low usage of insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

He also disclosed that globally in 2019, 229 million cases of malaria were recorded out of which 409,000 deaths were reported.

Mr. Bedie noted that the African region accounted for 94 percent of those cases and deaths.

The Focal person said pregnant women and children had a higher susceptibility in highly endemic malaria areas and advised them to protect themselves from mosquito bites.

He said malaria if left untreated could cause permanent brain damage especially in children, epilepsy, physical disability and could also cause miscarriage in pregnant women.

He, therefore, advised that even pregnant women with no sign of clinical malaria whose pregnancies were at least 16 weeks to take Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (SP) malaria drug.

Mr. Bedie said indications were that after taking the first dose of the SP, most pregnant women refused to continue with the dosage and appealed to them to complete the full course.

Mr. Samuel Yao Atidzah, Executive Director of GOSANET Foundation hinted that the Foundation was selected for the New Funding Model III of the Global Fund to continue the malaria awareness creation and prevention in 15 communities in the district.

He said they were working to cover 80 percent of communities that were at risk of malaria by 2025 adding that they would provide an appropriate diagnosis to all malaria cases in the district.

Mr. Atidzah asked the participants to work hard to ensure that 95 percent of the people in the district use at least one form of malaria preventive measure.

He pleaded with traditional and religious leaders and assembly members to assist volunteers in their communities in the malaria awareness creation and prevention.

Ms Lynda Buatsi, Adaklu District Disease Control Officer told the participants to also educate members of their communities on the devastating effect of the new variant of the COVID-19 and the need to always observe all the safety protocols.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, – Ghana is to receive over 1.4 doses of COVID vaccines as part of her vaccination campaign to protect the public, especially the most at risk of contracting the virus.

The country is expecting a total of 1.2 million Pfizer vaccines from the United States of America, through the COVAX facility, and some 249,600 AstraZeneca vaccines from the United Kingdom.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, who announced this in Parliament, said the diplomatic efforts were yielding results.

He stated that aside the over 1.4 doses, the Government had additionally committed itself to purchase, through the African Medicine Supply Platform, 17 million Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccines.

Mr Ofori-Atta stated that a committee had been set up to facilitate domestic capacity to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines, beginning with the process of “fill and finish.”

The Finance Minister said already, the Government had procured and administered 1,271,393 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, explaining that while 865,422 people had received the first dose, 405,971 had been fully vaccinated, as of the end of June this year.

Mr Ofori-Atta attributed gains to increased international visibility and the exemplary leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during the pandemic.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Tema, – Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo, Programme Manager for the National AIDS/STI Control Programme has disclosed that most men who have sex with men in Ghana are bi-sexual, which exposes their regular female partners to risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

“We have noticed in our data that a lot of the men who have sex with men in Ghana are young and are bi-sexual, what it means is that though they practice homosexuality they have sex with females,” he said.

Dr Ayisi Addo disclosed this during the fifth edition of the Tema office of the Ghana News Agency stakeholder engagement on the topic, “workplace policy on HIV/AIDS, who enforces it: legal basis for churches demanding HIV/AIDS test from would-be partners? Role of partners of infected individual”.

He explained that as a HIV high risk population that have a prevalence rate of 18 per cent, such homosexuals that were also bi-sexual served as bridging population just like female sex workers.

“So, they get the high risk from homosexuality and give to their female partners and then they too transmit to other partners”.

Touching on the ongoing debate on Lesbians, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender (LGBT ) issues in Ghana he stressed that their responsibility as health workers was to provide care for all health-related issues that might occur from the act but not to promote it as they saw it as a private behaviour.

“As a Programme, we have the responsibility to reduce HIV in all high-risk population groups that is where it ends; we have the obligation to treat them. Our responsibility is not to promote the behaviour because we see it as private,” he said.

He stressed that, “I will take care of you because I am a health worker. As a Programme I always draw the clear lines that though it is sex and sexual orientation that is high risk, and have a relationship with prevalence, it is private.

“Ours is to deal with all consequences as a result of the behaviour, and so as part of it, we prevent by giving education so that people don’t engage in risky behaviours, but we will not promote it”.

Explaining the high prevalence rate among LGBT population, Dr Ayisi Addo said it was due to the likelihood of getting bruises and cuts in the anus during the practice of their sexual preference making it easy for transmission of the disease.

Touching on the current data of HIV infections in Ghana, he revealed that the national prevalence rate stood at 1.7 percent, among pregnant women attending antenatal was 2 percent, while female sex workers who have multiple partners was 4.6 percent.

Dr Ayisi Addo said as at 2020, an estimated number of 346,120 people were currently living with HIV in Ghana out of which more than 80 percent were females.

He added that the new infection recorded was approximately 19,000 with about 14,000 deaths in the year 2020.

Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of GNA said the l engagement which takes place on the last Wednesday of every month was a progressive media caucus platform created to give the opportunity to both state and non-state stakeholders to interact with journalists and address national issues.

Mr Ameyibor said the Agency used the platform to deepen the working relations with the stakeholders to ensure that both the media and the corporate world worked together towards national development.

The event also served as a motivational mechanism to recognize the editorial contribution of reporters to the professional growth and promotion of Tema GNA as the industrial news hub, while contributing to national development in general.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Cape Coast, – The Central Regional Office of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has attributed the exponential increase of COVID 19 cases to the new delta variant that has been found in the Region and the country in general.

Describing the Region’s situation as ‘really serious’, it indicated that researches showed that the delta variant was about 50 per cent more contagious than the Alpha variant of the novel pandemic.

Updating the media during a press briefing, Dr. Akosua Owusu-Sarpong, Central Regional Director of Health, said the Region, which recorded 31 and 81 cases as at Friday 16 and Saturday, July 24 respectively now stands at 121.

She called on all and sundry to collectively adhere strictly to all laid down safety protocols to be able to halt and defeat its spread.

COVID-19 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic in the Region, as at Monday, July 26 is 36.

“The threat is that, the delta variant is more transmissible and therefore more people stand the chance of getting infected faster if measures are not taken to curb it spread”, she stated.

She revealed that the Regional Health Directorate and its public health unit as well as the risk response and COVID-19 committees had met to put in place robust and enhanced measures to ensure the general populace strictly complied with all protocols especially for physical distancing and the wearing of nose masks.

“It is so worrying to see people going about their daily works not wearing face masks, no hand washing items are seen in various markets and institutions, we have to go back to it because we can’t afford to have increase in cases” she lamented.

She noted that fighting COVID-19 required a unified effort from all and there was the need to exhibit the culture that would curtail the virus, stating “we have done this before in the first and second wave and we can do it again”.

On vaccination, Dr. Owusu-Sarpong encouraged all to quickly get their shots as soon as the health centres were furnished with vaccines adding that it would protect all from the severe forms of the disease.

“We need to be interested in getting vaccinated, forgo the myths and misconceptions because they are all false, nothing will happen to you like you hear, get involved and get protected” she added.

Dr Owusu-Sarpong mentioned again that, funerals and all other large gatherings must be held in open spaces possibly with few numbers where people could easily be monitored to distance themselves from each other and ensure proper coughing and sneezing etiquette.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Gomoa-Potsin (CR),- The Ministry of Food and Agriculture says it is working assiduously to minimise and contain the outbreak of the Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) in the country.

Already, more than seven poultry farms in three regions in the country have been affected by the virus with over 10,000 birds dead since it was first detected on July 6 this year.

Speaking in an interview with the media after officials from the Ministry toured two poultry farms affected by the virus in the Central Region on Thursday, Dr Patrick Abakeh, Director of Veterinary Services Directorate, said the Ministry was taken the necessary steps to avert further spread of the virus.

The visit, led by Mr Yaw Frimpong Addo, a Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, was to allow the Ministry to ascertain the level of destruction caused by the outbreak to enable it to make informed decisions.

Dr Abakeh said: “I want to assure Ghanaians that the Ministry of Agriculture and for that matter, the Veterinary Services Department is working hard to contain this disease and thus within the shortest possible time.”

The Ministry, following the outbreak, declared a total ban on the importation of poultry and poultry products from neighbouring countries where the prevalence of the disease was confirmed to control the spread of the virus.

It also placed a ban on the movement of poultry and poultry products within and from the affected regions and districts to other parts of the country and strict inspection and issuance of permits to cover the movement of all poultry and poultry products from unaffected parts of the country.

He cautioned importers and local farmers to desist from importing poultry from neighbouring countries and affected regions to enable the Ministry to eradicate the disease on time.

“We are saying that some neighbouring countries have already confirmed before it came to Ghana and we named some of them like Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Even this morning, we had to send some samples to OIE Reference Laboratory in Canada for confirmation and results came back and it’s been confirmed that this particular virus came from Nigeria, they were able to detect it, but how it came in we don’t know so the ban still holds for the importation of poultry and poultry products,” Dr Abakeh said.

He, however, allayed the fear of the public on the consumption of poultry and poultry products, adding that: “The only thing we are saying is that they should prepare it well before consumption,” he said.

Mr Addo, a Deputy Minister of MoFA, said the outbreak of the virus was of major concern to the Ministry as it would impact negatively on Government’s Rearing for Food and Jobs Programme and assured affected farmers of government’s support to enable them to revive their farms.

He commended veterinary officers in the Region for their swift action, which he said had prevented a further spread of the virus in the Region and brought it under control.

So far, more than 4,400 birds have been destroyed by the officers in two farms in the Awutu-Senya East and Gomoa East districts of the Central Region since the outbreak.

The Deputy Minister also urged farmers to adopt best poultry practices including proper sanitation and well-fenced coops to avoid birds, who are usually the carriers from having access.

Dr Helena Acquah, the Central Regional Veterinary Officer, called on poultry farmers across the country to report unusual deaths of domestic poultry and wild birds to the nearest Veterinary Office and public authorities for early detection and prevention.

Bird Flu diseases were previously recorded in Ghana in 2007, 2015, 2016 and 2018, with a significant economic impact on affected poultry farmers.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Sunday commissioned the 85-bed Central Gonja District Hospital, Buipe in the Savannah Region.

The commissioning of the health facility is part of activities lined up for his two-day tour of the region, which started today.

Construction of the Buipe Hospital started

in 2018. The facility is one of six medical installations for which Government secured an 80-million-euro facility from Raiffesen Bank of Austria.

The Buipe Hospital has an Out-Patient Department, Radiology unit, Laboratory, Pharmacy, Dental Unit, Male and Female wards, as well as Paediatric and Maternity units.

President Akufo-Addo was optimistic that the hospital will help improve the health needs of the people of the district.

He disclosed that in addition to the newly constructed Buipe District Hospital, the Government had constructed health facilities in Mpaha, Digma and Tosinape and Kigberipe, all in the Central Gonja district.

The Buipe hospital, together with five others in Somanya, Sawla, Bamboi, Tolon, and Ketu North, was constructed by Vamed Engineering GmbH of Austria, with President Akufo-Addo, on 20th October 2020, commissioning the sixty (60) bed Ultra-Modern Hospital for Weta, in the Ketu North District.

The President had earlier paid a courtesy call on the Overlord of Gonja, Yagbonwura Tutumba Boresa Sulemana Jakpa, to thank him and the Region for the support offered the New Patriotic Party in the 2020 elections.

On the request for potable water made by the Yagbonwura, President Akufo-Addo indicated that he had already cut the sod for the construction of the Damongo Water Supply to address the problem.

He explained that COVID-19 had delayed the implementation of the project, “but I am happy to inform you that by the first week of August the contractor will be moving to site to begin work.”

The President reiterating his commitment to construct some 1,500 kilometres of asphalt roads in 2021, and assured the Yagbonwura that the Savannah Region will be a beneficiary of the project.

He also re-assured the Gonja Overlord that the construction of the Savannah Regional House of Chiefs will also commence soon.

President Akufo-Addo, who started the tour of the region on Sunday, also visited the site of the construction of a new 3-Storey Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) Administration Block for the Savannah Region, at Damongo.

The RCC building is currently 70 per cent complete. A two-storey Administration block for Regional Education Directorate is also being constructed at Damongo, and a two -storey Administration block for Regional Health Directorate at Daboya, as well as a two-storey Administration block for Regional Agric Directorate at Bole, and a 2-storey Administration block for Regional Feeder Roads Department at Salaga are all being constituted in the region.

Source: Ghana News Agency