Hypertension, waist pains and diabetic conditions topped the list of health-related problems Africa Health Promotion Organisation (AfricaHPO) recorded at a day’s free health screening exercise it organised at New Ningo.
The conditions of waist pains and diabetes were recorded among most of the young men and women while hypertension condition was recorded among persons whose ages were in the 50 to 80 bracket.
New Ningo is one of the lowest income earning communities in the Greater Accra Region.The reported high case of diabetes is a result of the people’s poor eating habits, Dr Love Tamakloe, AfricaHPO’s Health Programmes Manager told The Chronicle last Saturday.
Dr Tamakloe was not specific about the cause of the high recorded waist pains among the youth who attended the free health screening exercise “and I must say that that could largely depend on the occupation of the people.
“The hypertensive cases were high among the elderly men and women who reported for the screening, and you know… the majority of the people with this health condition are on routine medication and they said they have defaulted to go for check-ups because they have no money. It is a sad situation,” Dr Love Tamakloe explained.
She entreated the Ministry of Health and the government, for that matter, to heavily subsidise hypertensive drugs if it cannot make them free to patients.
She further suggested the establishment of orthopaedic centres at the various CHPS compounds in the district to attend to residents with waist and back aches.
“Lastly, I think the Ghana Health Service must intensify its community-based health outreach programmes in the rural and peri-urban communities to promote public health,” Dr Love Tamakloe noted.
The observations by Africa HPO were corroborated by the Assemblyman for the New Ningo electoral area, Ebenezer AduNarh, who told The Chronicle in an interview that his electorate is largely menial workers at construction sites.
“And carrying these concrete mixtures, blocks and mortar at the construction sites are jobs for the youth, so I am not surprised the working force in my area have severe waist problems,” Mr Narh explained.
Menial jobs do not fetch the workers enough stipends to take care of the youth and their family “and so, again, it is no wonder majority of my people practise bad eating habits.
And because of the little money they make from the construction work, the youth are unable to buy hypertensive drugs for their parents, hence the hypertensive patients defaulting in their medical checkups and difficulty in buying their drugs.”
Dr Narh associated with Dr Tamakloe’s plea to the Ghana Health Service to regularly organise public health screening exercises for persons living in rural and peri-urban centres to increase the rate of life expectancy with proper education on proper healthcare.
Other free health care services AfricaHPO provided included Ear, Nose and Tongue (ENT), ante-natal, eye test, cervical cancer, prostate and Covid-19 vaccination.
