Tuberculosis afflicts more people at Kintampo

Kintampo (B/A), Aug. 18, GNA - Findings by the demographic surveillance unit of Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) show that 40 percent of residents in Kintampo North Municipality and Kintampo South District are living with tuberculosis (TB).

Dr. Owusu Agyei, Director of the Centre, told the Ghana News Agency that the study also showed that more than eight percent of households in the two areas had people with symptoms of the disease but had not reported at any health facility.

He expressed the fear that more people could be living with the disease in the two areas and appealed to households to encourage those who had coughed for more than two weeks to visit health centres. Dr. Agyei said stigmatization of TB patients by the public and inaccessibility to health facilities were some of the major causes that contributed to the spread of the disease. He said the KHRC was resolved to conduct further research into TB cases in the municipality and the district "but financial limitations have been the challenge".

On the HIV/AIDS pandemic Dr Agyei said 95 percent of people interviewed by field staff of the center indicated their readiness to know their status of the pandemic. Lack of funds to procure anti-retroviral drugs to give to those who might test positive of the deadly disease, however, has been a hindrance to the centre's ability to organize HIV/AIDS tests in the area, Dr Agyei said.

He said the voluntary testing and counselling was on-going in the Municipal Hospital in Kintampo and the District Hospital at Jema and advised the people to patronize the exercise. Dr. Agyei said excessive bleeding after child delivery was the major cause of maternal mortality in the area which, he said, was due to the failure of pregnant women to attend hospital during child birth as well as ignorance and poverty.

He said the KHRC was collaborating with the municipal and district health directorates in Kintampo and Jema respectively to supply drugs that could reduce bleeding to community health nurses for supply to women who give birth at home.