Akufo-Addo cancer publication unethical - Essilfie-Conduah

Media expert Professor Nana Essilfie Conduah has advised media practitioners to desist from publishing medical reports of politicians describing it as unethical.

This follows a publication by Africa Watch magazine that the presidential nominee of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, has been battling with prostate cancer, acute kidney disease and an enlarged heart since 2013.

Mr Akufo-Addo, while speaking to the Bolgatanga Traditional Council in the Upper East Region on Sunday, August 28 during his campaign, fought the claim.

He said: “First, they said I was a drug addict; it didn’t work. They said I was sick; it didn’t work. They said I was too old; it didn’t work. They said I was a hunchback; it didn’t work. They said I was a dwarf; it didn’t work. They said I was in a wheelchair; it didn’t work. They said I am a murderer; it didn’t work. They said I would die in June; it didn’t work. They said I was a dictator; it didn’t work. They said I was intolerant; it didn’t work. They said I was violent; it didn’t work. They said I had a secret agenda to destabilise the country; it didn’t work. Now, they say I have cancer, it will not work.”

Meanwhile the presidential nominee of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr Edward Mahama, contributing to the debate suggested that the personal physician of Mr Akufo-Addo should make an authoritative public statement on Nana Akufo-Addo’s health to set the records straight.

“Since they are accusing Nana Akufo-Addo of this, it will be good if Nana could get his doctor to let Ghanaians know he is OK and if there is any other accusation about any individual’s health, he might also do the same,” he stated.

But Nana Essilfie-Conduah, who is the Chairman of the Journalism Department at the African University College of Communications told Emefa Apawu on Class91.3FM’s 505 news programme that there was everything wrong with releasing such confidential information about a politician’s health status.

“It is a blatant breach of confidentiality, there is always that kind of agreement between a patient and his or her doctor. These things are never ever spoken about in public. It is always kept as a classified material between the patient and the medical doctor and it is a cardinal principle in ethics as such…”