By Ewoenam Kpodo, GNA
Aflao (V/R), Jun 02, GNA – The Ketu South Municipal Hospital (KSMH), Aflao has organised a community durbar and medical outreach to climax neonatal jaundice awareness month.
The event was meant to promote effective awareness on jaundice in newborns, stakeholder engagement and service showcasing through medical outreach, talks from health professionals and stakeholders on timely detection and treatment of the condition.
Dr Roch Sotindjo, Specialist Gynaecologist, KSMH in an address charged everyone including healthcare workers, parents, and the community to play active roles in addressing neonatal jaundice to ensure that newborn babies received the care they needed to thrive.
He emphasised the need for all stakeholders to be united against the disease in newborns saying, though neonatal jaundice was a treatable condition, it required a united effort from all to avoid the devastating consequences of its neglect.
Dr Sotindjo also stressed on the importance for awareness, education, and access to quality healthcare noting, only through that could caregivers or parents detect the signs of jaundice in their babies to seek medical attention and treatment for them so they could thrive and reach their full potential.
Mr David Yao Agbokpe, Ketu South Municipal Director of Health Services said the week-long celebration saw various activities including raising awareness on the condition, common among babies within the first 28 days of birth, caused by the building up of bilirubin, a chemical the human body makes when it breaks down old red blood cells, causing the yellowing of baby’s skin and whites of its eyes.
He believed that with the knowledge, collaboration, and commitment, they could significantly improve the health outcomes of newborns in the municipality as well as “create a healthier future for all our newborns.”
Madam Abla Dzifa Gomashie, Member of Parliament of Ketu South expressed her readiness to support health delivery in the municipality and thanked the health professionals for their vital roles in improving healthcare in the area.
She called on residents to always seek medical attention when sick and not attribute everything to evil spirits or curses, thus, seeking spiritual remedies rather than medical care, and resorting to various products being advertised on the airwaves saying, “God has given wisdom to the health professionals so that they can care for you when you’re sick.”
Friday’s event chaired by Torgbui Anubo IV, Senior Divisional Chief of Aflao Traditional Area, had about 300 community members, mostly aged men and women screened for various health conditions such as blood sugar, body mass index and Tuberculosis with the reigning diagnosis being hypertension.
Some attendees in an interview with Ghana News Agency expressed their gratitude to the healthcare team for the education and services rendered, Madam Gomashie for supplying boxes of Zincovite tablets for them and to Ketu South National Health Insurance Scheme for the free renewal of their cards.
Mr Samuel Lantei Aryee, one of them said he had no idea he was coming to such an interactive and educative programme and that “in addition, I got my health status checked and received medication for free. They told me when I finish taking my medication, I should visit the hospital for further checks. It’s such an experience.”
GNA