Ghana is in epidemiological transition – Dr Asare
Ghana is currently in a period of “epidemiological transition” where infectious diseases like tuberculosis have declined substantially but non communicable diseases like diabetes and cancer are on the ascendancy.
Dr Daniel Asare, the Chief Executive Officer of the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH), said infectious diseases were no longer the leading cause of deaths.
He was briefing a delegation of Public Account Committee members from the Danish Parliament who are in the country to investigate the finances and state of affair of projects being financed by the Danish Government.
The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) is supporting the Ministry of Health in four high priority areas namely family planning, procurement, service delivery and emergency obstetric and new born.
The support is to help attain the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) of which the CCTH is an implementing agent.
Dr Asare described as worrying the number non-communicable diseases among the Ghanaian populace and in the younger generation which, he said, must be given the necessary attention to stem the phenomenon from reaching an epidemic stage.
He said chronic diseases such as cancer, kidney infections, diabetes and heart diseases were disproportionately killing the younger population in Ghana compared to HIV/AIDS but were often disregarded.
The trend, according to him, was being driven by urbanisation, lifestyles of the citizenry and other major challenges such as galamsey operations which at a large extent pollute water bodies with substances such as cyanide and mercury.
Dr Asare said kidney related problems for example were on the increase in the country due to environmental challenges causing many people, mostly from mining catchment areas, to regularly report kidney related issues at the hospital.
“Kidney injuries care is now rampant among children as young as 12 years,” he said adding that the situation needed rapt attention since its management and treatment was costly.
On diabetes he said it had almost reached an epidemic stage as more than 3,000 patients including children were attending diabetes clinic at the facility.
Dr Asare said the scariest aspect was that children with such chronic diseases did not have child psychologist to counsel them.
Giving an analysis on maternal and child health at the facility, he said skilled delivery and antenatal care had seen significant improvement from 42 to 73 per cent and 88 to 97 per cent respectively.
However, maternal mortality ratio increased from 1,389 per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 1,488 per 100,000 live births as of June 2016 though some measures were put in place by management to reduce it.
Dr Asare attributed the increase to late referral, lack of skilled staff accompanying patients, and arrival of patients in critical condition among other factors.
The hospital has recorded 21 maternal deaths in mid 2016 as against 20 in 2015 while still birth also increased from 78 in 2015 to 96 in mid 2016.
The hospital also saw a slight increase in supervised delivery in mid-2016 which recorded 1,444 cases and expressed concern about the high rate of caesarean section deliveries but added that the option was always considered to save the lives of mothers and their babies.
The Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Tove Degnbol, who led the Danish delegation, expressed satisfaction about the projects carried out by CCTH and commanded the CEO for the good work done.
Source: GNA