Category: Medical

Nestle Ghana Limited says it does not add sugars (sucrose and glucose) to infant formulas for children in the country.

‘Like everywhere in the world, in Ghana, we do not add sugars (sucrose and glucose) to Infant Formulas for children aged 0-12 months.

‘In Ghana, all our growing up milks have no added sugars except NIDO1+ which we add honey, in compliance with strict international and local regulations’, the Company said in a press release.

It is in response to criticisms that the Company was adding sugar to its baby food in some countries, according to analysis by an organisation, which campaigns for the observance of human rights by Swiss-based companies.

The release said Baby Food and Infant Formula were highly regulated categories and that Neetle applied the same nutrition, health, and wellness principles everywhere in the world aligned with both international and local guidelines and regulations.

‘This includes compliance with labeling requirements and thresholds on carbohydrate content that encompa
sses sugars.’

It said regarding cereals, there may be slight variations in recipes around the world.

‘In Europe, Nestlé’s range of cereals comes with and without added sugars.

‘Our milks and cereals for young children are fortified with vitamins and minerals such as iron to help tackle malnutrition in Central and West Africa,’ it said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Dr Emmanuel Addipa-Adapoe, a Senior Medical Officer at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, has urged persons who are yet to receive a COVID-19 vaccine to do so to prevent them from contracting the disease.

He said although COVID-19 was no longer a public health threat, it was not completely eradicated, with people still getting infected and the virus manifesting with different symptoms.

Speaking at a workshop on vaccine uptake for journalists in Accra, Dr Addipa-Adapoe said the symptoms of COVID-19 were now similar to that of malaria.

The workshop was organised by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN) with support from the World Health Organization and the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

‘With the new infections, it is difficult to tell if it’s a COVID infection without testing, now you may experience headaches, cough, fever and sometimes sore throat, the likelihood of a loss of sense of taste and smell are no longer the case, persons infected may sometimes experience muscle weakness,’ he s
aid.

The medical doctor said with the onset of the rains, Coronavirus was manifesting as influenza like infections and that the public needed to be alert and report to hospitals when they experienced coughs and sore throats.

Dr Addipa-Adapoe said COVID-19 was now like any other disease with the symptoms close to that of malaria and encouraged persons who experienced or suspected a COVID-19 infection to report to a health facility for treatment.

He said the vaccine was safe and an effective form of protection against the virus as it prevented the severity of the illness and deaths.

Data from the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) at the Ghana Health Service (GHS) show that presently, there are 8, 306,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccines available.

As of March 2024, 14,935,381 persons, representing 45 point five per cent of the total population have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Similarly, 11,850,978 persons representing 46.5 per cent of 36 point nine per cent of total population are
fully vaccinated while 6,889,700 have received a booster dose.

Mr. Naziru Tanko Mohammed, Deputy Programme Manager, EPI, said persons who were yet to be vaccinated could visit any of the vaccination centres to receive their jabs.

He said vaccination had conquered many childhood vaccine-preventable diseases in the country.

It helped with the elimination of Neonatal tetanus in 2011, no Wild Polio Virus reported in Ghana since 2008, no Measles death in Ghana between 2003 and 2021.

Mr. Mohammed said vaccination had contributed to a drastic reduction in pneumonia and diarrhea in children, strengthened health systems and contributed to the reduction of Under Five Mortality from 111 per 1000 live births in 2003 to 40 per 1000 live births in 2022.

A vaccine, according to the WHO, is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease prevention.

Vaccination is a simple, safe, and effective way of protecting against harmful diseases before contact with
them, it uses the body’s natural defenses to build resistance to specific infections, making immune systems stronger.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, Member of Parliament (MP) for Cape Coast South Constituency, has commissioned a refurbished delivery suit at Ekon Health Centre for the people of Ekon and its adjoining communities.

At a short ceremony to hand it over to the health authorities, Mr Ricketts-Hagan said the facility would help alleviate challenges faced by expectant mothers over the years.

Mothers, he indicated were major contributors to national growth and efforts to ensure their safety during deliveries should be prioritised.

The clinic, which serves more than 3,000 people within the area, needed a facelift for quality healthcare services for patients.

He said the healthcare centre needed a further facelift to help cater for the basic health needs of the people, students and surrounding communities to avoid travelling long distances to access healthcare.

The MP pledged his unwavering support to the people of Cape Coast and promised to complete all unfinished projects in the area.

Mr Isaac Takyi Mensah, the
Physician Assistant of Ekon Health Centre, expressed delight that that infections among pregnant women would reduce with access to their own facility, particularly the available washrooms and thanked the MP for the gesture.

Mr Mensah called on the government, NGOs, individuals and philanthropic organisations to support as they needed more logistics and equipment like a laboratory, scanning machines and blood bank to improve on their services.

For his part, Nana Kwame Adu Ababio I, Chief of Ekon, appreciated the efforts of the MP for supporting the community over the years.

He called on all to get on board and assist the community for its growth and development.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Professor Emmanuel Arhin, a geoscientist, has urged government to leverage the expertise of geoscientists and academia to address the increasing prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the country.

He stated that NCDs were becoming increasingly significant in the field of public health and now the leading cause of mortality and disease burden in Ghana, saying NCDs continue to affect millions of people globally.

Professor Arhin, also the Dean of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) Campus at Dormaa, made the statement at a public lecture on the topic: ‘Origins of Emerging Non-Communicable Illnesses (NCDs): The Concealed Perils to Public Health.’

He observed that in the past, conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases were considered lifestyle diseases when the environment were less polluted, however the situation has changed significantly as NCDs now affect individuals of all ages, including children.

He said statistics between 2019 and 2022 indicated t
hat majority of individuals in Ghana diagnosed with type II diabetes fell within 30-39 age bracket, representing a population of over 1.4 million.

Professor Arhin highlighted a statement made by Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) during the World Heart Federation roundtable in Accra barely two years ago that over 600,000 individuals, comprising 400,000 females and 200,000 males, were diagnosed with high blood pressure annually in Ghana.

He emphasized that NCDs, if not prevented, could lead to metabolic disorders in individuals resulting in elevated blood sugar levels, which may lead to severe health complications such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and stroke.

Prof. Arhin reiterated the importance of the partnership between geoscientists and medical professionals which was long overdue.?

He assumed that reducing the rising number of dialysis cases of NCDs required acknowledging that prevention was more effective option than cure and stressed
the importance of proactively addressing the root sources of NCDs rather than just treating the symptoms.

Professor Arhin stressed the importance of creating an Environmental Disease Pattern Map for Ghana moving forward to help determine the route of exposure by analyzing food and water samples to confirm disease-types.

Additionally, human samples such as hair, nails and blood samples be collected to identify the underlying causes of NCDs to effectively combat the increasing prevalence of cases, he added.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Deputy Director, Public Health, Bono Regional Directorate of Health, Dr Prince Quarshie, says sleeping under Long Lasting Insecticides Nets (LLINs) remains the surest way to put the nation on the edge to eliminate malaria by 2030.

He appealed to pregnant women, nursing mothers, children, and everybody to sleep under the LLNs, being distributed nationwide to protect themselves from mosquito bites, and put the nation on the edge to eliminate malaria by 2030.

Dr Quarshie made the appeal when he announced the regional mass distribution of the LLINs at a stakeholder meeting in Sunyani.

He said the region had moved from malaria control to elimination, saying, efforts being made by the health directorate to eliminate the disease would not be successful if people failed to sleep under the LLINs.

Dr Quarshie said the mass distribution of the LLNs in the region, would be held between May 23 and May 27, 2024, explaining that the campaign was a collaborative effort spearheaded by the National Malaria Elimination
Programme (NMEP) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

It aimed at registering all targeted households and distributing LLINs to at least 90 per cent of all the registered households at distribution points in local communities.

Dr Quarshie said the GHS and partners were training registration assistants in the region, who with identification cards would visit individual homes from April 18 to April 22, 2024, to register members of each household.

They would take information about the number of people in each household, name and telephone numbers of the heads of the family and this information would be used to collect the free LLINs at designated distribution points.

Source: Ghana News Agency

As part of efforts to help pupils of Sanso Methodist Primary School in the Obuasi Municipality to make informed career choices, authorities of the school have been inviting various professionals to engage the pupils on their line of work.

The goal is to expose the children to various professions to enable them to adopt a good career path as they go through the academic mill.

In line with this initiative, the school recently engaged a legal practitioner to interacted with them on how they could develop their aspirations and achieve their potentials in the legal profession.

The latest to be invited to the school were officials of the National Ambulance Service, who engaged the pupils on basic life support techniques.

They were taken through Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Choking Management, and Blood Control techniques, with 250 pupils and staff of the school benefitting from the exercise.

Mr. Francis Koomson, the Obuasi Municipal Director of the National Ambulance Service, said the invitation was i
n line with their outreach programme targeted at educating students at the basic and senior high schools on basic life support mechanisms.

He also took the children through the core mandate of the Service, which is the provision of pre-hospital emergency care services to the populace, and stated that the Service also helped in public safety during national disasters.

He was optimistic that the education would go a long way to shape their ideas and knowledge on basic disaster response or first aid.

‘Though handicapped, the Service with the support of the Obuasi Municipal Assembly will continue to carry out its mandate and will speed up its efforts to offer public safety education to schools.’

Madam Sabina Yankson, Headmistress of the school, said the use of role models was a perfect tool to encourage, arouse and develop the pupils’ interest in education and as well appreciate the value of education.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Community Practice Pharmacists Association (CPPA) is engaging with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) for some 1,000 community pharmacies across the country to provide services under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)

The collaborative effort will align with the NHIA’s objectives and contribute to the overarching goal of universal health insurance coverage.

Mr Emmanuel Kwaku Ireland, Chairman of the CPPA, said during a virtual meeting with the NHIA that the engagement would aid financial risk protection against the cost of quality basic healthcare for Ghanaians.

That, he said would ensure that the public got access to prescribed medications listed under the NHIS in addition to proper education on medicine doses.

‘The collaboration would also enhance access to quality healthcare by creating a sustainable, progressive, and equitable social health insurance to the persons covered by the Scheme,’ Dr Ireland said.

Dr Yaa Pokuaa Baiden, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NHIA,
said as of the end of 2023, 140 pharmacies out of about 5,300 across the country had enrolled to provide services under the NHIS.

She expressed concern about the low numbers and encouraged more pharmacies to collaborate and work with the Scheme, stating that the payment of claims by the Scheme had improved since 2020.

Dr Baiden said the Authority would continuously work in collaboration with relevant agencies especially those involved in Ghana’s health delivery system by granting credentials to facilities, undertaking service utilisation reviews and technology assessments.

She urged healthcare providers to submit claims for services provided to members of the NHIS to the Authority within 90 days of providing the services to avoid delay in payment.

‘Claims generation, submission and processing have been enhanced with the complete migration to online processes at all stages, thereby improving claims payments,’ she said.

She called on pharmacists to join the global journey towards achieving Universal Health
Coverage (UHC), saying, ‘Pharmacists have a very essential role to play in attaining UHC nobody else can fill that space for us’.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Dr Antwi Boasiako, a medical officer at the Bekwai government hospital, has stressed the need for a sustained public education campaign to encourage the citizens to undertake regular medical check-ups.

He said encouraging people to prioritize their health by seeking regular medical screening at hospitals would go a long way to reduce dangerous medical situations and sudden deaths, especially among the youth and middle-aged persons.

Speaking to journalists during a free medical screening for the traders and residents of Asante-Bekwai, he said most people were unaware of their health conditions and status.

The screening was organized by ASA Savings and Loans as part of its corporate social responsibilities for its customers and traders at the Bekwai market.

About 300 people benefited from the exercise, which was aimed at identifying ailments such as malaria, typhoid fever, hepatitis, high blood pressure, diabetes, stomach ulcers and eye problems.

The beneficiaries also received free treated mosquito nets a
nd counselling services from the medical team.

Dr Boasiako indicated that the outcome of the exercise made it urgent for the public to be educated on the need to take their healthcare very seriously.

He said the team observed the lack of exercise among the people, poor diet, stress and poor personal hygiene, as some of the factors contributing to the deteriorating health of many people.

Dr Boasiako urged the public to take their personal healthcare seriously and undertake regular check-ups to prevent sudden attacks and deaths.

He commended ASA Savings and Loans for the initiative and said it was timely and life-saving for the beneficiaries.

Mr Samuel Odame Sakyi, Bekwai Area Manager of ASA Savings and Loans, said reaching out to society with such exercises remained a key agenda of the company to make a positive impact on the people they serve.

He said the exercise was to help promote the general well-being of the people in the communities within its catchment area.

Source: Ghana News Agency