Pediatric Society of Ghana launches Ludo game on world TB Day

Every year, 24th March is set aside to mark World TB DAY. The theme for this year is 'United To END TB'

In 2015, 730 children (5%) were diagnosed with TB out of 14,460 in total. This is far below the expected estimate of 10-15% of total TB numbers by World Health Organization. There are therefore more children with tuberculosis in the communities than are currently reported by our hospitals. Every hour 5 people get TB and 1 person dies of Tuberculosis

In support of the drive to increase awareness and therefore case detection rate, Paediatric Society of Ghana, with support from STOPTB Partnership, Ghana Medical Association, and National TB control Programme is launching a ludo game to help create awareness about the disease in the communities. Ludo, a very common game is played and enjoyed by Ghanaians irrespective of age, sex, religion, ethnicity or political affiliation.

The game is played in the traditional way by 4 individuals. One does not need to play '6' on the dice before one starts to count. Any random number played is counted starting from the 'home' of the individual. Before the first dice is caste, the individual must speak aloud the KEY message in the home area such as 'HIV and TB are PARTNERS', 'DON'T REJECT PEOPLE WITH TB' etc. As one counts forward, the information on each segment should be read out loud to the hearing of ALL players. Each counter or crown must complete the rounds and exit before a new counter is started. The cycle is repeated till enough knowledge is gained by each participants. There are no kick off in this game

There are plans to adapt this game to similar common games in Ghana such as 'Oware', 'snake and ladder', and draught (dummy). It will also be translated into many local languages with time to serve the bigger rural communities.

Even though the game can be enjoyed by all, the main target groups are children and adolescents in schools and in the communities.

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