Monday, 15th August, 2022

Page 8
Health
DAILY ANALYST Monday, 15th August, 2022
Minister of Health
has launched the
first ever National
Guidelines for
the diagnosis
and management of cardiovascular
diseases (CVD) in Ghana.
This makes Ghana the third
country in sub-Saharan Africa to
encode such guidelines.
The guidelines were developed
jointly by Ghanaian experts
and local institutions under the
coordination of the Ghana Heart
Initiative, a project implemented
by the Ministry of Health
(MoH), Ghana Health Service
(GHS), GIZ, with funding support
from the Bayer AG.
Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu,
the Minister of Health, speaking
at the event, said the guidelines
were an important element in
the sustainable strengthening
of Non-Communicable Diseases
(NCDs) management in Ghana.
“The Ghana Heart Initiative
is a great example of how
stakeholders can join forces to
address global health challenges.”
He said the development of
the National Guidelines for the
Management of Cardiovascular
Diseases was among the most
important results delivered
so far, as it institutionalized a
treatment standard for healthcare
professionals on all levels
of care.
Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye,
the Director General of the GHS,
urged health professionals to
embrace the use of the guidelines
in the management of cardiovascular
diseases to reduce
morbidity and mortality.
Mr Colin Tyrer, the Cluster
Guidelines for the management of
cardiovascular diseases launched
Division Head, Pharma South-
East and West Africa for Bayer
AG, expressed their commitment
to promote access to quality
healthcare in Ghana.
He said, “At Bayer, attaining
our vision of ‘Health for
All, Hunger for None’ means,
enabling broader patient access
to quality medicines and treatments
worldwide.
“In light of this, we are
committed to moving NCD care
forward: developing capacities,
enhancing awareness and improving
infrastructure to tackle
such diseases in West Africa.
The Ghana Heart Initiative
represents a lighthouse project
in this regard, helping us to
better understand access components
beyond drug availability
and serving as a foundation and
catalyst for subsequent initiatives
around NCDs capacity
building.” Mr Tyrer added.
the Director General of International
Services, Mr. Carsten
Schmitz–Hoffmann, speaking
on behalf of GIZ, said, “These
Guidelines have been developed
by Ghanaians for Ghanaians.”
Over one hundred experts
and health professionals from
various health institutions
across the country representing
all levels of care have joined
hands to produce this national
treatment standard for cardiovascular
diseases, ensuring a
direct ownership and meaning,”
he stated.
Dr. Alfred Doku, the Technical
Director GHI, highlighting milestones
attained by the initiative,
said the project since inception
had significantly strengthened
the Ghanaian health care system
through the development of CVD
training manuals which had
been used to train more than 650
health professionals.
This includes the supply of
basic equipment for diagnosis
and management of CVDs to
beneficiary health facilities, the
establishment of a CVD Support
and Call Centre, and the
improvement of nationwide
CVD related data collection and
management, he said.
The Ghana Heart Initiative is
currently being rolled out to 10
additional regions following the
successful pilot in the Greater
Accra Region.
Two Monkeypox Strains
Get New Names – WHO
Upper East gets five additional doctors
Dr Emmanuel Kofi
Dzotsi, the Upper
East Regional
Director of the
Ghana Health
Service (GHS) says the Region
was able to attract and retain
five additional Medical Officers,
in the first half of this year.
The Region had over the
years battled with shortage of
critical health staff, especially
Doctors who refuse postings to
the area.
In 2021 for instance, all 10
Medical Officers posted to the
Region refused to report.
“I am happy to announce
that during the half of 2022,
we were able to attract five
additional Medical Officers to
the Region. I hereby express my
sincere thanks and appreciation
to those Doctors for accepting to
come and work in the Region.”
Dr Dzotsi announced this
at the 2022 mid-year health
performance review meeting
of stakeholders in Bolgatanga,
the regional capital, on the
theme; “The role of quality data
in improving service delivery
outcomes.”
The Regional Director
assured health professionals
who still had doubts about
accepting postings to the
Region, saying “The Upper East
Region is a place to work. All the
myths about the Region are not
true, the Region is the best place
to work in.”
He appealed to the Regional
Coordinating Council, Municipal
and District Assemblies, and
other stakeholders to put in
place residential and office
accommodation, some monetary
incentive packages and comfort
items to attract and retain more
health staff in the Region.
He noted that the inadequate
numbers of critical human
resources such as Physician
and Surgical Specialists,
Medical Officers, Physician
Assistants, Midwives, Laboratory
Scientists among other health
professionals continued to
thwart their effort at achieving
some critical service indicators
and targets.
Dr Dzotsi said as of the
period under review, the Doctor
to population ratio in the Region
was 1:23,724 and that of nurses
was 1:290.
He said health personnel
who accepted postings and
worked in deprived areas in the
Region were given promotion
after two years, study leave with
pay after three years and early
postings out of the deprived
areas after serving for two years.
The Director said the
Region currently had 56
Medical Officers including
Obstetric and Gynaecological
Specialist, Physician and
Surgical Specialists and some
general practitioners stationed
at the Regional Hospital, while
the remaining Officers were
distributed across the Region.
The Regional Minister, Mr
Stephen Yakubu, said as part of
efforts to increase the number of
Doctors in the Region, the RCC
had directed all 15 Municipal and
District Assemblies to identify
and sponsor medical students,
and bond them to return and
serve.
The World Health
Organization (WHO)
has renamed two
monkeypox strains
with Roman numerals
so as not to draw unfavorable
attention to African countries.
The decision was made after
a group of global virologists
and public health experts
reached consensus on the new
terminology this week, according
to the WHO.
The organization said on
Friday that Roman numerals
will now be used for two clades
(or strains) of monkeypox: the
former Congo Basin (Central
African) clade will be referred to
as Clade one (I) and the former
West African clade as Clade two
(II)
İn addition , experts agreed
that Clade II consists of two
subclades (or substrains). Lowercase
alphanumeric characters
will be used for subclades.
In June, WHO Director
General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus announced that
the organization was going
to work on new names for
monkeypox in order to get rid
of the “discriminatory and
stigmatizing” nomenclature.
Earlier in June, over 30
scientists wrote a public letter
urging the medical community
to rename the virus to prevent
possible discrimination and
stigmatization. Scientists said
the WHO recommended avoiding
geographic regions and animals
in disease names. They also
suggested that the monkeypox
virus could not be called African.
In July, WHO Director-
General Ghebreyesus announced
that the global monkeypox
outbreak represents a
public health emergency of
international concern.
Most people usually recover
from monkeypox within a few
weeks without treatment. The
symptoms are initially flulike,
such as fever, chills, and
swollen lymph nodes, which are
then followed by a widespread
rash. According to the WHO,
the disease can be more severe
in young children, pregnant
women, and individuals who are
immunocompromised.
The monkeypox virus is
not easily transmitted and
usually spreads through close
physical contact, including
sexual contact, with an infected
individual. The virus can enter
the human body through broken
skin, the respiratory tract, eyes,
nose and mouth, and via bodily
fluids. Monkeypox is a zoonotic
disease (spread between animals
and people). It originates
in animals like rodents and
primates and occurs in remote
parts of Central and West Africa.
Over 31,000 cases of
monkeypox have been reported
worldwide across more than 70
countries, and so far, 12 deaths
have been attributed to the
disease.