The numbers are stark, disturbing, and they demand urgent national attention.
In the last three years, Ghana has recorded rising levels of stroke cases, with the rate going up per 100,000 members of the population.
A Public Health Physician and Health Systems Researcher of the Ministry of Health, Dr Mavis Sakyi, who disclosed this in Accra last Monday, August 24, said almost 48 per cent of the stroke cases were in men between 30 and 49 years old, which she described as “quite alarming”.
That age group is not retired. It is the productive heart of the nation.
These are fathers, teachers, farmers, traders, drivers, artisans, public servants — men in their prime.
When stroke strikes them, it does not just damage a brain; it shuts down a household, wipes out incomes, and places a heavy burden on families and the state.
What is even more frightening is the nature of the strokes.
Dr Sakyi said they were coming in much worse forms, at stages technically described as “hemorrhagic strokes,” which usually have a poor prognosis.
These are bleeds in the brain, often sudden, often fatal, and often leaving survivors with severe disabilities.
The figures she gave must jolt every one of us awake.
In 2023, 24,840 cases were reported — 77.4 per 100,000 population.
In 2024, it rose to 26,758 cases or 81.1 per 100,000 people.
In 2025, the number jumped to 29,483 or 87.36 per 100,000 population.
In two years, we have moved from about 78 to more than 87 cases per 100,000.
That is not a statistical fluctuation.
It is a trend, and it is heading in the wrong direction.
The Ministry of Health says the cause is not mysterious.
Evidence shows that a large proportion of patients who are hypertensive and diabetic are not managing their conditions well, leading to stroke as a complication.
It could be that they are not getting their medication, or they are getting it but are not taking it.
This editorial is a call to action. Stroke is no longer a disease of the old or the affluent.
It is becoming a disease of young, working-age Ghanaians, particularly men, and it is being driven by largely preventable factors.
For years, we have focused — rightly — on malaria, HIV, and maternal health.
But Non-Communicable Diseases have quietly overtaken us.
Hypertension is now common in our markets and offices, but many people do not know they have it.
Others know but have stopped treatment because drugs are expensive, they feel well, or because they have turned to herbal concoctions.
Diabetes is rising too, fuelled by changing lifestyles. Yet routine screening is not part of our culture.
We check our phones every hour, but we do not check our blood pressure every month.
When hypertension and diabetes are left uncontrolled, stroke is almost inevitable.
And haemorrhagic stroke, the type Dr Sakyi says is increasing, is often the direct result of uncontrolled high blood pressure bursting a blood vessel in the brain.
We must be honest about how we live.
Our diets have changed.
Fast foods, heavily salted foods, sugary drinks, excessive alcohol, and deep-fried foods have become staples in urban Ghana.
Physical activity has reduced. Long hours in traffic, stress at work, and poor sleep have become normal.
Ashanti, Greater Accra, Volta, and Oti leading the chart is no coincidence.
These are regions with fast-growing urban populations and rapid lifestyle transitions.
Districts such as Oforikrom, Korle Klottey, Bekwai, and Ayawaso West are densely populated, busy, and under significant stress.
We cannot solve stroke in the hospital alone.
We must solve it in the kitchen, on the street, and at work.
What must be done?
The Daily Graphic proposes, first: make screening free and routine.
Every Ghanaian over 30 should know his or her blood pressure and blood sugar status.
The Ghana Health Service, together with the NHIS, should roll out community screening in markets, churches, mosques and workplaces, especially in the high-burden regions and districts identified.
Second, the authorities must fix access to medicines.
If patients are not getting medicines or not taking them, we must ask why.
Cost is a major barrier.
The National Health Insurance Scheme must ensure consistent supply and affordability of hypertension and diabetes medicines.
No Ghanaian should suffer a stroke because he could not afford a 50-cedi drug.
If we fail to act to reverse the trend, the 87.36 per 100,000 we see today could be 100 per 100,000 tomorrow.
And behind every one of those numbers will be a young father who can no longer provide for his children. We cannot let that happen.
