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Front Page
Pregnant women to be screened for HIV/AIDS
Wa (Upper West Region) 22 April 2002 - With immediate effect, pregnant women visiting ante-natal clinics would undergo screening for HIV/AIDS. The measure forms part of efforts by the health administration to ensure early detection of the disease and to avert its spread from mother to baby.
Dr Francis Banka, Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, made this know at Wa during the second regional scientific workshop of the Cuban Medical Brigade Team. The workshop brought together all the 17 Cuban doctors working in the five districts of the region and their counterparts in the Bole District of the Northern Region. It was to enable them to review their performance, identify their weaknesses and shortcomings and the way forward towards enhancing efficient and effective healthcare delivery, especially, at the rural community level.
Dr Banka said counseling centres were to be established at all regional and district hospitals to counsel the public on the disease, especially, those already infected with it on their lifestyles so as not infect other people.
The medical director of the Wa Regional Hospital, Dr Edward Gyader, said that the AIDS pandemic was a social problem and should not be left in the hands of medical professionals alone. Dr Gyader, who is president of the Upper West Chapter of the Ghana Medical Association, regretted that the disease was assuming an alarming rate in the third world and called for a holistic approach towards the fight against it.
Dr Gyader commended the Cuban Medical Brigade Team for their efforts at ensuring quality health care in the region. He said that apart from the team improving the doctor-patient ratio in the region, their dedication and patriotism to work had improved the health status of the people.
Dr Elvis Pardo Olivares, Head of the Cuban Medical Brigade Team in the region, pledged that he and his colleagues would continue to use their medical expertise to ensure efficient health care for the deprived, poor and the vulnerable. Dr Olivares called for more collaboration and sharing of ideas between them and their Ghanaian counterparts towards achieving success and sustainable health care for the people, especially those at the rural community level.
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