Tuberculosis cases drop in two CR districts
Reported cases of tuberculosis (TB) have since 2014 reduced in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa and Ajumako-Enyan- Essiam (AEE) districts in the Central Region.
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The reduction is as a result of the intensive efforts of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Keba Africa, a Non-governmental organisation (NGO), in the TB prevention and control programme across the entire country.
In the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District, a total of 126 cases were recorded in 2014 and that reduced to 119 in 2015, whereas in the Ajumako-Enyan- Essiam District, 99 cases of TB cases recorded in 2014 reduced to 80 in 2015.
Keba Africa works with health workers and community volunteers in communities to identify patients affected by TB and ensure that such people are given the needed medical treatment, and the NGO’s overriding objective is to provide essential health, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS and sanitation information services for individuals, communities and institutions that need such services.
Target groups
Its target groups are women, children, men, youth, as well as persons with disabilities (PWDs) in their catchment areas.
At a meeting with some health workers in Breman Asikuma, the Programmes Director of Keba Africa, Mr Anthony Yankey, said the field officers, as part of the programme, were able to reach the target audience so as to identify the disease and the appropriate remedy provided.
According to him, the successes chalked up so far was as a result of the increased efforts of field volunteers and health towards a reduction in TB cases in both districts.
He told them that his outfit was committed to resourcing the volunteers so that they could easily get to the hard-to-reach areas to identify the disease and to control its spread in the region.
Facilitating movement
He said his outfit had requested for motorbikes from the National TB Control Programme, to add to available bicycles, to facilitate their movement, and called on the health workers to support their efforts towards the control of the disease in the area and the nation at large.
The Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Mr Samuel Kwabena Ofosu, lauded the health workers, Keba Africa and the field volunteers, for their relentless efforts to fight TB in the area.
He urged the health workers to use contact tracing which would enable them to do regular follow-ups towards the treatment of the patients.
