NGO intensifies TB education in Gomoa District

Gomoa Pomadze (C/R), Feb 1, GNA - Allies in Development Actions (AIDA), a local non-governmental organization (NGO), has embarked on a campaign to educate the people in 22 communities in Gomoa District on prevention and treatment of tuberculosis (TB). The campaign, which is being funded by Global Fund, National TB Control Programme and Ghana Health Service, is also to reduce treatment defaulting rate.

The NGO uses festivals, funerals, churches and mosques as platforms to disseminate its campaign messages. It has trained some Community-Based Agents (CBAs) and community volunteers to help to identify suspected TB patients and advises them to go to health facilities for diagnosis.

Addressing a durbar at Gomoa Pomadze to climax celebration of the annual Akwanbo Festival of the town, Mr Emmanuel Amokwandoh, the Executive Director of AIDA, said TB was curable, its treatment was free and that no one should allow financial difficulty to make him or her to die of the disease.

Mr Amokwandoh urged TB patients to receive continuous treatment as defaulting in treatment made curing difficult.

He appealed to the people to erase the misconception some people had that TB was caused by witches and evil spirits and that patients should receive treatment at health facilities and not at prayer camps. Mr Amokwandoh cautioned leaders of prayer camps to desist from keeping TB patients in their camps because of the money they would collect from them and refer them to health facilities.