By Elizabeth Larkwor Baah
Tema, June 27, GNA – The Tema Chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), in partnership with the Pleasant Medical Centre, has organised a free health screening for its members as part of the 75th anniversary celebration of the association.
The anniversary is on the theme: “75 Years of Excellence in Journalism: Honouring the Past, Embracing the Present, Shaping the Future.”
The exercise offered a range of screenings, including typhoid, blood sugar, malaria test, Hemoglobin, blood pressure, lipid profile, and prostrate.
Members of the GJA also received sensitization on preventive health, diabetes, hypertension, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, and others.
Mrs Dzifa Tetteh Tay, the Tema GJA Chapter Chairperson, said the initiative was one of the programmes to mark the anniversary as tasked by the national executive of the GJA for a nationwide celebration.
She mentioned that journalists are usually on the run trying to meet deadlines and have little time for their health needs, stressing that the health talk and screening would help journalists in the Tema region to know their health status, detect any health issues early, and put in the right interventions.
She indicated that journalists must be in good health to be able to discharge their duties efficiently in informing the public on electioneering matters.
Mr. Rocky Tettehdzie, a Physician Assistant at the Pleasant Medical Centre, said during the health talk that preventive healthcare had numerous benefits, including improving life expectancy, a quality lifestyle, enhanced productivity, and promoting economic growth.
Mr. Tettehdzie, however, stated that inadequate education and awareness, lifestyle habits, inaccessibility to health care, and others were barriers to preventive healthcare.
Touching on hypertension, he mentioned that it was estimated that 1.28 billion adults aged 30 to 79 years worldwide have hypertension globally, and more than six hundred thousand people are diagnosed with the disease in Ghana annually, and close to 50 percent of those affected are not aware of their status.
He stressed that the disease was no longer for the elderly, as some youth between 25 and 30 were also contracting it.
He said that obesity, sedentary lifestyle, family history, and excessive intake of carbonated drinks were some risk factors for diabetes, while some symptoms of the disease included excessive urination and hunger, blurry vision, persistent boils, delays in wound healing, stressing that early diagnosis was very important.
The physician assistant revealed that prostate cancer was the second most common cancer in men globally and the fifth most common cause of cancer death in males, with symptoms including frequent urination, painful urination, and waist pains.
He said cervical cancer was the fourth most common cancer among women caused by a virus called human papillomavirus (HPV), urging the public to screen for the disease and vaccinate against it.
Mr. Tettehdzie urged journalists to have time for themselves despite their busy schedule by prioritising their meals and resting in-between schedules while cautioning them against the intake of alcoholic beverages as they add no nutrients to the body and act as a risk factor for many non-communicable diseases.
GNA