By Muniratu Akweley Issah
Accra, Dec. 06, GNA – The Ghana Health Service (GHS) says it will intensify its collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to strengthen diabetes education among children in the schools.
Dr Efua Commeh, Acting Programme Manager, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), GHS, said the move was to help create awareness to prevent diabetes and its complications among children due to the rising cases of the disease.
She told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on the sidelines of a public lecture, organised by the GHS as part of diabetes awareness month in Accra, that the despite the many efforts put in, the number of diabetes cases kept increasing, hence, the need to intensify their efforts.
She said: “Childhood obesity is on the rise because most of our children are not exercising enough, unlike previously when you have to walk to school.
“These days, especially in the urban areas, almost all our children are going to school in vehicles, they go to school without physical activity on the time table anymore, so, if you are not careful, the child goes through the whole day with very little exercise, they come home late and cannot also play, meanwhile, it is the playing that becomes an exercise for the child,” she added.
Dr Commeh said it was for this reason that the GHS and the GES are in collaboration to provide education to the pupils on diabetes prevention at the younger stage to increase awareness among them.
The GHS has for some time engaged School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinators to lead the school health education activities to educate the children.
“These coordinators are people who we constantly work with because they work directly in the schools, they know how to organise the pupils and students and how to provide educational messages to the children in a well-structured manner.
According to Dr Commeh, the risk factors started from infancy, including the food that they take in, exercises that they do not do, adding that the children needed to have powerful messages to understand the situation.
She expressed the worry that school activities were so voluminous, which prevented children from having a chance to play or enjoy any physical activity.
I have a seven year old school child who comes home with about five to six home works a day and this is too much for them.
She said a national policy would help address the situation, saying, “for us at the lower level, we can only do what is brought from up, and that is why we are linking up seriously with the GES to enable them to appreciate that the children need to exercise.
She was happy to notes that Taxes on sugar sweetened beverages had recently been passed saying, “This means that once somebody is importing any of these fizzy drinks, the tax on it is high and that high tax ensures that the cost goes up a bit, once cost is high, it cuts out some people so that the funds gotten from the taxes will be directed to take care of diabetic patients.”
For Ghana as a country, diabetes is on the rise, for young people, for people in the productive workforce.
For the necessary policies, we keep making noise that if the policy direction is not there, it is difficult, even medicines that come in, if there is no direction for NHIS to cover medicines, patients will suffer.
She encouraged that as government made interventions, individuals must take responsibility for their health, put in enough exercise, eat healthy and ensure that children also adopt healthy lifestyles.
“Currently, children are coming out with conditions that are seen in older people so, it is important that all these messages go down to the children as well and together we can address diabetes as a country,” she said.
GNA