President Receives Sasakawa Boss

The Foundation of Japan, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation has initiated a project under which skin transplant from a third party is to be used in healing Buruli ulcer victims in the county.

The concept, which is quite different from the cultures skin transplant which uses a patient's own skin, is believed would accelerate the wound healing process because of its remarkable regenerative capacity.

In a trail conducted on seven Buruli ulcer infected patients in the country, 90 percent of their wounds healed. There were no abnormal findings to. This success story was revealed yesterday when the president of Nippon Foundation, Yohei Sasakawa, paid a courtesy call on President J. A. Kufuor at his residence.

The cultured skin for the trail, it emerged, was made by a Japanese tissue engineering company from skin provided by a Japanese. This was frozen and transported to Ghana where an operation was conducted on the seven patients.

The ulcers were initially removed by a plastic surgeon at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra and two weeks later, the new skin was applied which in a postoperative examination, revealed an excellent rate of healing.

Buruli ulcer has since 1980 emerged as an important cause of human suffering. The causative organism is from the family of the bacteria, which causes tuberculosis and leprosy. It destroys the skin underlying its tissues and causes deformities. In Ghana, up to 22 percent of villagers are affected in some areas.

Mr. Sasakawa said the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research would serve as the project base to train other health personnel in the skin treatment. He called on the government to provide support for the project which when fully established would cater for the teeming number of Buruli ulcer victims in the West African sub-region.

Dr. Kingsley Asiedu of the WHO Office in Geneva, Switzerland, commended Nippon Foundation for it's initiative and said through the foundation's initiative, there is now concerted effort at controlling the incidence of Buruli ulcer.

He disclosed that work in the country is going on well and was hopeful that the new technology would provide an avenue to treat people with severe burns also.

President Kufuor expressed his gratitude to the formation for the positive strides it is making, describing its initiative as 'The height of humanitarian experience' He commended Mr. Sasakawa for his good work and said the generosity he has exhibited could be akin to what his late father did for Ghanaians some years back.

President Kufuor said Ghana has benefited a lot from Sasakawa's Global 2000 project. He also paid glowing tribute to Japan for its considerable support for Ghana's development.