Kumasi Metropolis records increase in Tuberculosis

The Kumasi Metropolitan Area recorded 451 cases of Tuberculosis last year, Dr (Mrs) Agatha Bonney, the Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Health Services, has announced.

Dr Bonney announced this at a press briefing held by the Kumasi Metropolitan Directorate of Health Services in Kumasi on Thursday on the health activities carried out by the directorate last year.

The forum was also used to review the Directorate's activities for the year 2001 and chart a more efficient course for the execution of their health activities for this year. She said 67 per cent of the cases were males but explained that it did not mean that men were more susceptible to the disease than women.

She, therefore, called on women, who detect any symptom of cough to also immediately report to the hospital rather than assuming that it was merely one of those ailments associated with womanhood.

The Metropolitan Director of Health Services also said between January and December last year, a total of 110 maternal deaths were reported to health facilities in Kumasi.

She, however, explained that only 57 out of the total number of maternal deaths that were reported came directly from Kumasi while the remaining 33 were referred from outside.

Dr Bonney said by the end of last year the number of babies screened for sickle cell since 1995 was 114,497. "Out of this figure, 2,217 representing 1.9 per cent had tested positive for sickle cell disease and this was in conformity with global expectation", she said.

Dr Bonney said the priority of the Directorate for this year was to promote the national health insurance scheme to cover both the formal and informal sectors while instituting measures to enhance the community based health programme.