Mfantseman health Directorate review performance for 2004

Saltpond (C/R), Feb. 20, GNA - The performance of health institutions in the Mfantseman District in 2004 have been reviewed and strategies mapped-out for their improvement in the current year. At a meeting at Saltpond, which was attended by personnel from Saltpond government Hospital, and those from the sub-districts of Anomabo, Dominase, Essuehyia and Otuam, malaria was identified as the top on the list of diseases prevalent in the district.

Mr Francis Zuradam Saareson, the District Disease Control Officer, said 13,475 malaria cases were reported in 2004 as against 11,845 in 2003.

Mr Saareson advised health workers to intensify public education on the use the Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) in preventing mosquito bites. He said the district exceeded its targets in the National Immunization Days (NIDs) conducted in the year under review and commended the staff for their dedication.

The officer said a strategy adopted to send medication to TB patients in their homes has reduced the defaulter rate considerably. Miss Mavis Narh, the District Public health Nurse, said supervised delivery has increased from 1,706 in 2003 to 2,278 in 2004 and attributed the increase to the government's free delivery policy in health institutions in the Central Region and some other parts of the country.

Miss Narh said one maternal death was recorded in 2004 as against seven in 2003.

She said the intensification of public education on Family Planning has yielded positive results with the district recording 8,904 cases in 2004 as against 4,998 the previous year.

Miss Narh, however, expressed concern about cases of teenage pregnancy which has shot-up from 978 in 2003 to 1,026 in 2004. Mrs Ophelia Adu Brempong, the District Nutrition Officer advised nursing mothers to take vitamin 'A' doses to improve the health of their babies.

She said in 2003, 116 cases of children with malaria with severe anaemia were recorded out of which 14 died, and 423 cases with 27 deaths were recorded in the year under view.

Mr Samuel Sosi, Acting District Director of Health Services, said there were plans to strengthen adolescent reproductive health services in the district and to intensify school health programmes. He said frequent power outages was affecting the cold chain system of their vaccines and other drugs and appealed to the Electricity Company of Ghana to ensure regular power supply to health facilities.