KNUST Medical Week marked in Dormaa-Ahenkro

Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/A) Oct. 24) GNA - Two students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) medical school has as part of their 2008 health week celebrations visited the Dormaa Municipality and interacted with selected groups on some debilitating health issues.

The theme for the week was "make every mother and child count" while health topics they discussed included maternal and neo-natal mortality, cleft, obstetric fistula, tongue tie and the significance of using the iodated salt. The two, Messrs Frank Amankona Dartey and Godfred Angkyire met with students of all Senior High schools while they used the two local FM radio stations in Dormaa to reach out to the remaining segment of the people.

While impressing on pregnant mothers to take due advantage of Government's free medical policy and enjoy available antenatal care, the duo called on families of pregnant women not to succumb to the overtures of quack doctors and self-appointed midwives, operating in the remote areas.

The two students noted that it was part of parents' responsibility to seek early treatment for children, who suffered cleft lip and tongue-tie as delay often resulted in complications and huge financial demands for medical treatment.

Dartey noted that some of the deficiencies crop up mainly among teenage pregnancies, since some of them attempt to abort. He said where the teenager was also too young to bear a child; parents should remain observant and provide the necessary support to ensure that the child was born with no deformity. On the use of iodated salt, Angkyire held that it was the tried and tested salt, which had the potential to offset the terrible conditions of goitre and cretinism.

He urged the people particularly students to press home to their parents the need to consume iodated salt. Miss Margaret Okyere Pomaah, Headmistress of Dormaa Senior High School, thanked the students for extending their health week to the doorstep of students in Dormaa-Ahenkro and its environs. She noted that such interactions had the capacity to expose students to the importance of education adding "you serve as role model to your younger brothers and sisters".