Radio stations cautioned against disseminating falsehood

Apam (C/R), Feb. 14, GNA - Radio Stations have been urged to device quick ways of verifying the truth in information they receive from callers during their phone-in programmes in order not to disseminate falsehood thereby creating confusion in the country.

Ms Esther Boansi, Gomoa District School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinator, who made the call, said a caller on one of the FM Stations nearly disrupted the National De-worming Exercise, which was underway in basic schools throughout the country on Monday. Ms Boansi said in an interview with Ghana News Agency at Apam on Tuesday that information provided by a caller on an FM Stations that some children in a school in the Volta Region had died after taking the de-wormer, caused pandemonium and nearly disrupted the exercise. The piece of information, however, turned out to be false. She said in one of the Gomoa communities, children who took the drug were packed into a vehicle to the Apam Catholic Hospital for examination to determine their safety.

Ms Boansi said the huge amount donated by UNICEF and DANIDA to support the programme initiated by Schools Health Education Programme (SHEP) Unit of the Ghana Education Service in collaboration with the Nutrition Unit and Disease Control Unit of the Ghana Health Service nearly went to waste.

The SHEP Coordinator said about 50,000 children from public Kindergartens, Primary and Junior Secondary Schools were targeted to be covered by the exercise.

Mr Marian Anaman, a Public Health Nurse, who supervised the exercise, said the efficacy of the drug was not in doubt.