News
KOFIH launches national campaign to promote health and well-being
The Ghana Chapter of the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) has launched a national campaign to promote health and well-being among the citizenry to help reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the country.
The year-long campaign by the group of healthcare professionals seeks to put NCDs as a front-burner issue on Ghana’s health agenda to reduce prevalence and marshal needed resources to improve disease prevention and management.
The NCDs Programme Manager at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Efua Commeh in an address expressed worry over the increasing cases of NCDs at health facilities each year, which were mostly preventable with healthy lifestyle behaviours.
“Cases are going up every year at our facilities because behavioural risk factors like poor eating habits (fast foods), physical inactivity, sedentary lifestyles etc, are on the rise.
We need to be cautious of what we eat and drink and have healthy lifestyles at the back of our minds to help reduce these diseases in the country,” she urged.
Dr Commeh identified that the traditional health system placed much focus on tackling infectious diseases and others like maternal and child health issues hence the little attention and investment into NCDs.
“We need to do more in terms of training of health workers, financial resources, enhancing control and treatment strategies among others.
Traditionally, our health system has been focused on infectious diseases, but we see that globally the death rate of these chronic diseases (NCDs) is fast catching up with the infectious diseases and we must strengthen interventions,” she stated.
The Programme Manager advised Ghanaians to adopt healthy lifestyles which could go a long way to minimise their exposure to NCDs and reduce the burden in the country.
President of the Alumini, Dr Ralph Armah, observed that NCDs have not had much traction because of the overwhelming burden of infectious diseases and limited resources available.
“Deaths from NCDs globally are high accounting for 41 million or 70 % of global deaths with the WHO estimates for Ghana at 94,000 deaths as at 2016.
80 percent of these deaths are from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases and calls for us to strengthen interventions in these areas.”
He said KOFIH would in coming days embark on activities including public sensitisation, awareness creation screenings, provision of tool kits to selected hospitals among others to reduce the NCD burden.
NCDs, also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors.
The main types of NCDs are cardiovascular diseases (such as heart attacks and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma) and diabetes.
They disproportionately affect people in low- and middle-income countries, where more than three quarters of global NCD deaths, about 31.4 million occur.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
News
Craze for x’mas shopping: Crowded markets, low patronage
Vendors of food and other wares associated with the Christmas celebration have expressed surprise at the low patronage despite the increased number of visitors to some of the major markets across the capital.
Four days to the celebration(Christmas), the markets are filled with various products ranging from food, clothing, livestock and many other stuff, but according to the vendors, patrons are doing more ‘window’ shopping.
The Spectator on visits to some of the markets in the capital, notably the Odawna, Makola, Accra Central Business District, New Town and others made similar observations as shoppers crowd them but did little in terms of purchases.
The paper also observed that majority of vendors, originally selling other wares have switched to product related to the festive season.
What it means is that there are a lot more clothes, food and vegetables, livestock and poultry, toys, firecrackers, drinks of different types and many others on display.
The markets have also stretched to the pedestrian pavement, leaving very narrow spaces for commuters to move about freely.
That, in addition to a few of the female vendors dressed in coloured attires to reflect the occasion, has heightened the euphoria, leaving the low sales as the only headache for the vendors.
Speaking with this paper, they sounded very optimistic, believing that sales would improve in the last few days to the yuletide.
According to them, there was the opportunity to sell beyond Christmas as the New Year celebration offers similar opportunity to trade the same wares.
They urged patrons to throng the markets to shop since prices were quite moderate and products affordable for all.
News
Retirement service for Elder John Ackom-Asante,3 others
Retired Deputy Editor of The Spectator, Elder John Ackom-Asante, was last Sunday honoured by the Church of Pentecost Windy Hills District in Kasoa in the Central Region, with a retirement thanksgiving service, after serving for 26 year as an Elder of the church.
He was honoured with a citation and certificate of service along with three other elders who served in the capacity for various years.
Elder Ackom-Asante was baptised at the Darkuman Central Assembly in 1979 and ordained as an Elder in 1997.
The citation read “Your selfless service, zeal, willingness to relate wholeheartedly and your desire to effect change has gone a long way to shape the lives of many people in the church and the nation over the 26 years of your dedication to the service of the Lord.”
Elder Ackom- Asante held many positions at the Darkuman Central Assembly, Obuasi in the Ashanti Region and Tema, serving in various capacities as youth and evangelism ministry leader and marriage counsellor.
He was the founding member of the Darkuman Christian Fellowship, a member of the Greater Accra Christian Fellowship; member of Bible Society of Ghana; founding member Obuasi Chapter Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International and founding member of New Times Corporation Christian Fellowship and Chaplain, Methodist University Tema Campus 2009- 2010.
As a professional journalist, Elder Ackom-Asante combined effectively and efficiently his duty as a member and elder of the church and the demands of his profession, with admiration from the church, kith and kin, till his retirement on December
From Alhaji Salifu Abdul-Rahaman, Kasoa
