GHS Director-General expresses worry about alcohol abuse in Upper West

Wa, March 21, GNA - Dr Elias Sory, Director-General of Ghana Health Service has expressed concern about high alcohol intake by the people in the Upper West Region and urged the District Assemblies and traditional leaders to team up and to bring the situation under control He said the quantity of "Akpeteshie" (local gin) particularly consumed in the region was alarming, noting that if care was not taken, the people would kill themselves and the region would continue to remain poor.

Dr Sory, who hails from the region, made these remarks at the launch of this year' national Tuberculosis week at Wa. He observed that some people in the region spent more money on alcohol than products that could improve their nutritional values, adding that when people are not eating properly, their immune systems become low.

"TB goes where your immune system is low and if our nutrition is bad, then we are in danger of getting infected with such diseases." On HIV, he said the prevalence rate of 5.8 percent in the Wa Municipality was too critical for the region and called for a second look at the preventive measures being used to fight the disease, otherwise many young men and women would get infected with the virus. He advised anybody with a prolonged cough to report to the hospital since the longer one stayed coughing the chances were that such a fellow would be transmitting the TB germ to others.