Accra, Sept. 24, GNA - Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Health (MOH), on Wednesday said the ministry would advocate a waiver of the 12.5 per cent VAT on Ophthalmic, Asthma, Diabetes and Hypertension drugs.
This he said was to enable patients suffering from such diseases to afford the drugs, comply with their treatment schedules and thereby prevent the more expensive and difficult complications, which resulted from non-compliance to treatment schedules.
The minister gave the assurance in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of the 10th Glaucoma Week celebration, organized by the Glaucoma Association of Ghana (GAG) under the theme; ''Glaucoma and Blindness.'' The promise comes after nine years of campaign by GAG for VAT waiver on the said drugs to make them affordable, with the view to preventing the more expensive consequence of the diseases.
Dr. Afriyie said the Ministry was fully sponsoring this year's Glaucoma Awareness Week celebration, which would be marked with free eye screening exercise at the St. Kizito Caotholic Church at Nima on Saturday September 27, 2003.
He said the ministry would sponsor the GAG to conduct extensive research on the prevalence of glaucoma in the country and urged the GAG to present a proposal to that effect.
"We would also expect the association to extend its free public screening to towns outside Accra," he said.
Dr Afriyie said the ministry would offer the necessary support to ensure that glaucoma awareness weeks were celebrated nationwide where free public screening would be undertaken at government hospitals. He stated that the MOH was working around the clock to improve the working environment and provide incentives in the form of vehicles and housing for all categories of health workers.
This, he said, was to stem the brain drain, saying "all we need is a little more patience from the health workers."
Mr. Harrison Kofi Abutiate, President of GAG said available statistics indicated that 45 million people in the world were blind and 135 million were visually impaired.
He said 90 per cent of the world's blind and visually impaired lived in the poorest countries, which were faced with significant economic problems due to the magnitude of the blindness, most of which could be prevented.
"Indeed 63.9 per cent of the 159 new glaucoma patients at Korle-bu Teaching Hospital were found to be already blind due to late reporting of eye problems at the hospitals as a result of patients inability to bear the high cost of health care and unfriendly hospital conditions," Mr Abutiate said.
He said, there was enough evidence that early detection of through screening and treatment, could reverse eye damage caused by glaucoma. Mr Abutiate, therefore, appealed to the government to establish eye care facilities befitting the status of Korle-bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals, with the view to retaining eye care specialists in the country to help reduce the incidence of blindness.
Dr. Patrick Kwaw, an Ophthalmologist from the Ridge Hospital in a lecture said the age at which one could easily develop glaucoma had reduced from 40 years in the 1960s to 35 years now, adding that the problem was prevalent in among Africans.
He said glaucoma induced blindness, unlike blindness caused by other factors such as cataract, was incurable, adding the glaucoma had no clear symptoms other than poor peripheral sight.
Dr. Kwaw urged Ghanaians to report to the hospital for screening, when they saw signs of poor peripheral sight, adding that it was important that in treating glaucoma, a patient stuck to one hospital and one doctor to allow effective monitoring.
The GAG presented one million cedis to the Ghana Society for the Blind to sponsor the education of blind children under its care.
