Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Have you examined your breast today?

Saturday, October 23, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 11)

By Rebecca Kwei
October is breast cancer awareness month. It is an annual international health campaign organised by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and raise funds for research into its cause, prevention and cure.
The campaign also offers information and support to those affected by breast cancer.
Every woman is afraid of breast cancer and it is one of the leading cancers and deaths worldwide. Simply being a woman is a risk for developing breast cancer and that is why it is sad that this month has not witnessed much awareness of the disease by the organisations working on breast cancer.
Just this year, a Ghana News Agency (GNA) report in May this year indicated that four female teachers died of breast cancer and four others of cervical cancer in the Eastern Region.
This is just a tip of the iceberg, since the figures of people dying of breast cancer are more but there is no cancer registry in the country and getting a national outlook of the disease is difficult.
In an interview I had last year with the Director of the National Centre for Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine, Dr Joel Yarney, he said breast cancer was the leading case that was brought to the centre.
In 2008, there were 266 new cases reported at the centre, representing 28 per cent of the total number of cancers reported there.
There are several breast cancer risk factors, which include age, because as one grows older, the risk of developing breast cancer increases; family and personal history of breast cancer; alcohol consumption; family planning choices and genetics.
Health experts also indicate the following as some of the symptoms of breast cancer:
• a breast that feels warm to the touch
• nipple that becomes inverted that was not inverted before
• skin on or around breast is dimpled or has an appearance similar to an orange peel
• skin on breast that is red or blotchy
• sudden increase in breast size that is not related to menstrual cycle
• nipple discharge (clear or bloody)
• nipple pain or scaly nipples
• persistent breast pain or tenderness that is unrelated to menstrual cycle
• swelling of the lymph nodes of the armpit
• a breast lump, swelling, or mass
These are symptoms of breast cancer that can be seen or touched, but there are instances in early breast cancer where there are no symptoms that can be detected by physical examination.
Imaging tests like mammograms and MRI can detect breast abnormalities that cannot be seen by the eye or by the touch.
“Most women fear that their breast will be cut and they will die but it is not automatic. Being diagnosed of breast cancer is not a death sentence,” says Dr Yarney.
Unfortunately, there are no true methods of preventing breast cancer, say the experts, but by avoiding breast cancer risk factors, you can decrease your risk of developing it.
“As soon as a woman feels a lump in her breast, it is important to see a doctor and not attribute it to the work of witches,” advises Dr Yarney.
When breast cancer is detected early, it can be cured. Breast cancer in its early stage presents no symptoms.
“That is why every woman must make a conscious effort to self examine her breast regularly and if there is anything unusual, see a doctor,” says Dr Yarney.
Every woman must be proactive in taking care of her breasts by doing self breast exams at home, having yearly clinical breast exams by a nurse or doctor in her 20s and 30s, as well as an annual mammogram, beginning at age 40 (women at a higher risk may begin having mammograms earlier at the recommendation of their doctor).
It is important not to think that you are too young to be affected by breast cancer: breast cancer can strike at any age.
The National Centre for Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital runs a breast cancer screening programme every Tuesday and any woman can walk in for screening, since there is no need for a referral.
The centre also has all modalities such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for the treatment of cancers.
Fortunately, breast cancer is on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and some of the medication for its treatment.
So, have you examined your breast today? Why don’t you spare a few minutes today to examine your breasts? Remember — it is one of a woman’s most treasured assets. Give it a try!

Ama is Miss Malaika ’10

Saturday, October 23, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 46)

By Rebecca Kwei
A NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD student of the University of Ghana, Legon, Ama Nettey, last weekend, was the proud winner of three Cs — Crown, Cerato car and cash- that the Miss Malaika beauty pageant offers.
Being an underdog, it was a bit of a surprise that she beat the nine other finalists to win the enviable Malaika crown.
Perhaps it was her answer to the crank question: “Who is an African? And what makes one an African? Is it the country of birth or the colour of the skin? Please give a detailed explanation of your answer.” that did the trick as the other final four had also struggled to do justice to the question.
However, many in the audience felt the first runner up, Stephanie Mensah, was the one to have won the ultimate prize.
Inspired from their trip to Egypt, the 10 finalists, dressed in sari, opened the show with a choreographed Egyptian dance.
As has been happening over the years during the finals of Miss Malaika and with other pageants, the delegates each gave a speech on various issues and then answered questions from the judges.
They addressed issues ranging from the effects of broken homes; abortion; opportunities; the African identity; the need to be charitable; leprosy; what young ladies go through just for money; belief and achievement; success; to revisiting our conscience.
The delegates’ answers to the questions posed to them by the judges on the issues they addressed were not impressive.
The talent show followed and it was Stephanie’s sketches of the dress she was wearing and another dress that impressed the judges to award her the Miss Talent award.
Delegates Ama, Stephanie, Berla, Belinda and Perpetual managed to make it to the final five and it was at this stage that they all had to answer the crank question to determine the winner.
For her prize, Ama took home a KIA Cerato saloon car, GH¢4,800 annual salary, GH¢15,000 promotional contract with MTN, a charity icon for MTN, GH¢1,200 MTN talk time, personal wardrobe from ABC Wax Print, a year's supply of cosmetics and perfumery from Nouvelle Gandour and working as Youth Ambassador for the Malaria Control Programme.
Stephanie was the first runner-up and she received a cash of GH¢2,000 as well as wax prints from ABC and cosmetics and perfumery from Nouvelle Gandour.
For placing third, Berla was rewarded with cash of GHC1,500 as well as wax print from ABC and cosmetics and perfumery from Nouvelle Gandour.
The night was interspersed with performances by Praye, Trigmatic, Banky W, D Black and VIP. Although, their performances were not extraordinary, the audience seemed to have been in sync with VIP.
Chris Attoh and Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku steered affairs while the judges were actors John Dumelo and Jackie Appiah; broadcaster, Paul Adom-Otchere and the Miss Malaika series god-mothers Anne Sekyi and Kay Bentsi-Enchill.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

6 Hours to Christmas

Saturday, October 16, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 47)

By Rebecca Kwei
IT’S six hours to Christmas and what happens within those hours is what Shirley Frimpong-Manso unravels in her new movie.
6 Hours to Christmas takes you through a roller coaster of humour and bizarre circumstances where Reggie (Chris Attoh), a suave creative director makes plans with his girlfriend on a typical December 24. It sure was going to be a memorable 24th night as his girlfriend promises him dinner and fireworks before the stroke of midnight.
However, things take an exciting turn for Reggie when his office colleague (Damilola Adegbite of Mnet’s Tinsel) and the girl he has lusted after for a long time gives him a Christmas present he finds impossible to refuse.
What happens as Reggie ‘unwraps’ his Christmas present is worth seeing ‘fiilifili’.
The cast, story line, acting and dialogue are superb. Shirley’s movies have received great reviews and 6 Hours to Christmas will no doubt receive another standing ovation.
As arts writer, Pa John Dadson, puts it “6 Hours to Christmas may yet reach the iconic heights. Shirley’s other movies such as a ‘Sting in a tale’ which dealt with many social and ethical issues, would make you laugh and take you on a ride that will surprise you. She has once again shown her resilience and moved away from the norm, trying another mould-breaking experiment which she again succeeds.”
The movie also stars Nii Odoi Mensah, Sena Tsikata (Things we do for Love), Marian Lempogo and Benny Ashun.
According to Shirley, this time round, she wanted to do ‘something different, a dark comedy’.
And yes, 6 Hours to Christmas is different and for movie lovers, Christmas came early — it’s Christmas in October. 6 Hours to Christmas premieres on October 29, 2010 at the National Theatre at 6.30 p.m.

Food safety is everyone's business

Saturday, October 16, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 11)

By Rebecca Kwei
The world celebrates World Food Day today on the theme, “United Against Hunger”.
Food is very essential for the survival of the human race and the recent report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) indicating that there are more than one billion people around the world who suffer from hunger every day is worrying.
According to experts, despite the significance of agriculture as the major factor in the economies of many developing countries, that sector is often starved of investment. In particular, foreign aid to agriculture has displayed drastic declines over the past 20 years.
And who bears the brunt? Women and children. It is important to stress that when women are empowered to receive the same levels of education, experience and farm inputs that their male counterparts receive, their yields will increase and there will be plenty for all.
Without belittling the theme for this year’s celebration, however, my focus will be on food safety, since consuming unsafe foods results in high disease burden, poor nutritional status, low productivity, limited markets and weak economies.
Additionally, scarcity of food can force people to consume whatever food is available, even if it is unsafe or contaminated.
Just take a cursory look at the environment at most food joints, especially those just beside gutters. Doesn’t it give you the chills? Interestingly, those are the foods we enjoy most, but the consequences can be devastating.
As part of activities to mark World Food Day in Ghana, a forum on food safety was held in Accra.
Giving figures on Ghanaians suffering each year from serious food-borne diseases, the FAO Regional Representative in Africa, Ms Maria Helena Morias Semedo, said the total number of outpatient cases reported with food-borne diseases in Ghana was 420,000 per year, with an annual death rate estimated at 65,000 and total costs to the economy at $69 million.
She said other figures gave a total number of 84,000 deaths per year, with 25 per cent being children under five.
These figures are alarming and they could be more, taking into account those that are not reported. Improving food safety is an essential element for achieving food security which exists when people have adequate access to sufficient and safe food.
Women are mainly in charge of preparing food at home. Therefore, it is important that food safety education is provided continuously in order to have a positive impact.
Food safety requires correct handling, from production through consumption. Poor food-handling practices in the home kitchen are thought to cause a significant number of food- borne illnesses.
For most women, there are a lot of process they go through while handling food, oblivious of the fact that they may be modes of contaminating foods.
Let’s take a look at some of the do’s and don’ts of safe food handling by experts.
It is important that you wash your hands before and after handling food. Also, wash them after using the bathroom or changing diapers. Wash fresh fruits and vegetables by rinsing them well with running water. If possible, use two cutting boards — one for fresh produce and the other for raw meat, poultry and seafood. Otherwise, be sure to wash the cutting board with hot, soapy water between each use. You can also wash your knives and cutting boards in the dishwasher to disinfect them. Bag raw meat, poultry and fish separately from other food items.
Make sure the food items you buy are in good condition. Refrigerated food should be cold to the touch. Frozen foods should be solid. Canned goods should not be dented, cracked or bulging. Produce should appear fresh. Meat should have a good colour and be firm to the touch.
Food packaging labels provide information on when to use the food and how to store it. Reading food labels and following safety instructions will reduce your chances of becoming ill with food poisoning.
When in doubt, throw it out. If you are not sure whether a food is safe, don't eat it. Re-heating food that is contaminated will not make it safe. Don't taste suspicious food. It may smell and look fine but still may not be safe to eat.
Although it is women who handle food mostly, either at home or at the markets, food safety is everyone’s business — from government, farmers to husbands and children. As the Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Board, Dr Stephen K. Opuni, put it at the forum, “Political commitment is fundamental to addressing majority of the food safety challenges. From producers to policy makers to consumers, food safety is everybody’s responsibility.”
What is needed is a lot of education on food safety, since, on a daily basis, the public faces many dangers and hazards which are food related.
More important is the point made by the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, that “it is unfortunate that in our part of the world routine laboratory examinations are not done by individuals to enable them to know their health status and the extent to which food-borne diseases are affecting them, thereby resulting in low productivity. The economy thus suffers, as money would have to be invested in the treatment of such food-borne diseases and several hours lost while the victim recuperates.”

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Tamara spearheads AIDS campaign

Saturday, October 9, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 47)

By Rebecca Kwei
When Tamara Aku Dzormeku won the Miss Malaika crown in 2008, one of her task was to be a malaria youth ambassador working in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Programme.
Two years on, having successfully embarked on malaria education in various parts of the country, she has taken a giant leap to spearhead another campaign on HIV and AIDS.
Dubbed “Right to live”, it aimed at increasing awareness of the seriousness of the HIV and AIDS disease and also encourage behavioural change.
Studies have shown that although the knowledge of HIV and AIDS was high, behavioural change was low.
It is also to reduce stigmatisation and encourage society to accept people living with HIV and AIDS as an integral part of the society.
The campaign which is being put together by Knock Out Concept and Trak Mastas with sponsorship from the Ghana Business Coalition, Ghana AIDS Commission and the Graphic Communications Group Limited will be launched on November 3, 2010.
According to Tamara in recent times when the issue of HIV and AIDS came up many people seemed to be indifferent or seemed to have had enough of the messages on HIV and AIDS.
However, she noted that that should not be the case since the consequences of contracting the disease was devastating and therefore, the need for continuous education.
The 2009 HIV Sentinel Survey and National HIV and AIDS Prevalence Estimates for Ghana indicated that the adult national HIV prevalence is estimated at 1.9 per cent as compared to 1.7 per cent in 2008.
Also, the HIV prevalence among pregnant women attending ante-natal clinics was 2.9 per cent, representing a 31 per cent increase of last year’s 2.2 per cent.
The showed that there was an estimated 267,069 persons comprising 112,457 males and 154,612 females living with HIV AIDS in Ghana and 25,666 of that were children; 12,579 being females.
Additionally, there were 22,177 new infections and 20,313 AIDS deaths with 2,566 being children.
In furtherance to the “Right to live” campaign, various activities have been lined up to herald this year’s World AIDS Day on December 1.
The activities include a seminar in the Central Region for second cycle institutions.
Tamara said a seminar is being organised for students of second cycle institutions because of their vulnerability to peer pressure as they continue to wallow in their sexually active ages.
“The message needs to go down well with them so they know the consequences of their actions and inaction with regard to sex.”
Then there will be a float in the Western Region and this according to Tamara is because of the discovery of oil in that region which has opened the region up to many other opportunities and has brought about an influx of people from all walks of life across the world to that part of the country.
Another important activity is the VIP/Celebrity Endorsement where Very Important Personalities from all sectors of life including sports, music, radio and TV, politics, international organisations, reality shows, beauty pageants etc. would be asked to make an endorsement for the campaign by sending a short and brief message on HIV and AIDS to be rolled on radio and television as well as the print media.
Aside this the CEO/Senior Managers Testing Day will see CEOs and senior managers publicly test for HIV to encourage the public to do the same.
Tamara said all these activitieswould be done in a fun way and another fun way of climaxing the activities will be a music and comedy concert in Takoradi on December 11.
Asked why she was not continuing with her malaria project, Tamara who is in her fifth year at the University of Ghana Medical School said she had not abandoned malaria completely but saw the need to tackle HIV and AIDS as well, which was a serious health issue.
She appealed to other organisations and individuals to come on board and support in order for the campaign to have a positive impact on society.
Appealing also to other beauty queens not to abandon their projects after their reign, she said “once a beauty queen, always a beauty queen and you should be an answer to someone’s prayer”.

Adolescents need information on sexual health

Saturday, October 9, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 13)

By Rebecca Kwei
A study on a health intervention on adolescents’ knowledge and sexual behaviour in rural Ghana has indicated that providing sexual and reproductive health information for adolescents is key to a healthy lifestyle.
The study also revealed that little education was not enough to help protect an adolescent, hence adolescents should be encouraged to stay in school up to at least the junior high school level.
Making a presentation at the 10th Annual General Meeting of the Indepth Network in Accra, a health research officer of the Navrongo Health Research Centre, Ms Matilda Aberese Ako, said majority of adolescents and young people lacked relevant knowledge on their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and that unprotected sexual intercourse placed them at the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy.
The study, which was undertaken in the Kassena-Nankana District of Ghana, was a community randomised controlled trial with intervention and non-intervention communities and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
One arm of the community had health interventions such as peer education activities, school-based teaching of SRH, youth friendly health services and community mobilisation and sensitisation, while the non-intervention communities had only youth friendly health services introduced.
According to Ms Ako, after the study, it was realised that adolescents in communities where the health interventions were introduced had more knowledge on SRH which helped them to make healthy decisions, such as delaying sex and safe sex practices, than those in the non-intervention communities.
For instance, the baseline information on knowledge of signs and symptoms of STDs was 10.6 per cent among females and 6.4 per cent among males in the intervention community, while in the non-intervention communities it was 7.1 per cent for females and 5.1 per cent for males.
However, after the post intervention, knowledge of the signs and symptoms of STDs among females increased to 17.1 per cent and 11.4 per cent in males in the intervention communities, compared to 11.5 per cent in females and 6.2 per cent in males in the non-intervention communities.
She said the study also revealed that Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) was beyond a health issue and that it encompassed social, cultural and religious dimensions, for which reason there was the need to combine various strategies to reach out to a large audience.
“Providing SRH information for adolescents is a priority area and needs a multi-dimensional approach. All stakeholders must be actively involved in order to give it the needed attention and investment,” Ms Ako added.

Invest in health of mothers and children

Saturday, October 9, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 11)

By Rebecca Kwei
Recently at a forum dubbed “Stand Up and Take Action Against Maternal Deaths in Ghana”, Mrs Elizabeth Vaah, the Executive Director of Nyilale Vaah Junior Foundation, in a presentation on maternal health in Ghana provided the ‘faces behind the figures’ of people who had been victims of maternal mortality in Ghana.
The stories of how these mothers and or babies were lost and the pictures provided by the presenter brought home the seriousness of maternal health .
When we hear the figures that maternal mortality rate in Ghana is 451 deaths at 100,000 live births, it is like an abstract; very far from us but in reality it is very near. It could happen to anyone.
The forum was organised on the heels of the 2008 Ghana Millennium Development Goals Report which said that “Maternal mortality rate at 451 deaths at 100,000 live births is high and Ghana is unlikely to attain the target of reducing by three quarters, the maternal mortality ratio between 1990 and 2015, even though maternal health care has improved over the past 20 years.”
Statistics indicate that women in sub-Saharan Africa have a one in 22 chance of dying in childbirth, compared to only one in 4,800 for women in the United States.
The big question is why do women and children in Africa die? The causes are many and varied. Ranging from hypertensive disorders, obstructed labour, bleeding, infections, unsafe abortion, lack of access to skilled care, late arrival at health facilities and sub-standard care at health facilities.
Although there are many reasons for the high rate of maternal deaths, lack of access to good health facilities and sub-standard care at the facilities is an enormous bane in many developing countries. The lack of skilled health care workers, clinics and equipment means that many women and children do not have access to basic health services.
According to statistics if women had access to basic maternal health services, 80 per cent of maternal deaths could be prevented.
However, the picture of Ghana’s maternal mortality rate is not all that gloomy as a report dubbed ‘Tracking Health MDGs: Beneficiary Perspectives- Ghana Civil Society MDGs Campaign indicated that more women were participating in ante-natal care, while the fact that women recognised the importance of formal facilities in the event of obstetric emergencies was also encouraging.
Also, there have been improvements in the maternal mortality rate in some regions and districts of the country.
Of more importance is the need for intensive education on key danger signs in pregnancy and also to counter constraining beliefs shrouding the experience of pregnancy.
“Considering that most women who had lost infants and other young children did not know the medical causes, proactive counselling services are recommended as a way of removing obstructive beliefs and promoting better hygiene and health in poor communities. Without such services, women are left to believe that the causes are purely spiritual.
Investing in the health of mothers and children would have a lasting positive impact on Ghana’s maternal mortality rate.
As Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, the Regional Programme Manager of Abantu for Development put “it is unacceptable for a woman to be pregnant for nine months and then lose the baby or her life. Zero tolerance for maternal deaths should be our target”.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Push for research findings to be utilised — Sory

Saturday, October 2, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 27)

By Rebecca Kwei
THE Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Elias Sory, has called on researchers to channel their findings to the appropriate quarters for them to be utilised.
He said it was not enough for researchers to generate information but they needed to go a step further to push and convince policy makers to make good use of their research results.
Dr Sory made the call at the 10th Annual General Meeting of the Indepth Network in Accra.
The four day meeting which is on the theme “Indepth: Lessons for future direction in demographic and health research in developing countries” is being attended by 268 researchers and scientists from various countries.
The Indepth Network is a global network of members who conduct health and demographic evaluations of populations in low and middle income countries to enable them set health priorities and policies based on evidence.
The network currently has 42 Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) in 19 countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania.
During the AGM members will hold scientific forum and presentations to share their research based on HDSS.
Dr Sory noted that research was a very powerful tool and that “without research we would not have been where we are now”.
He said the service recognised the importance of research hence a new division had been created to bring research activities to the fore.
Additionally, he said the service had also allocated five per cent of its budget to support research activities.
He said fighting diseases of poverty was a complex issue and appealed to other ministries and sectors to also set aside money for research since it will go a long way to help the health delivery system in the country.
Corroborating the importance of research to national development, the Vice President, Mr John Mahama, in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, also said health research had become a cornerstone of international development policy.
He, therefore, gave the assurance that government will collaborate with all health research centres and allied institutions to ensure that health delivery is brought to the door step of every Ghanaian.
The Vice President was pleased to note that three of Indepth’s member centres in Ghana namely the Navrongo, Kintampo and Dodowa Health Centres were institutions of the Ghana Health Service which were at the forefront of conducting first class health and demographic research aimed at informing health policy in the country.
He particularly made mention of research conducted at these centres that have now been adopted as national policy such as the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS), Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) and Vitamin A supplementation.
For his part, the board chair of the Indepth Network, Dr Seth Owusu-Agyei, said the research on public health conducted by the network aimed at informing policy and decision makers of all interventions that would influence the health needs of Ghanaians.
He said research activities of member sites stool tall globally and “an indication that collectively scientists of the global south can and indeed are making significant contributions to the development of scientific and demographic research world-wide”.
The Executive Director of Indepth Network, Dr Osman Sankoh, stressed the need for local scientists to be strengthened and play lead roles in research activities.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Explain what free maternal care entails — Report

Saturday, September 25, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 27)

By Rebecca Kwei
A REPORT on tracking the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on health has called for a clearer definition of the ‘free maternal care’ scheme.
This according to the report was to minimise conflicting interpretations of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) policy and its associated exemptions.
The report said the free maternal care was interpreted differently by practitioners at different locations.
For instance, it indicated that without an NHIS subscription, a mother may be required to pay for various delivery services while in some cases, mothers were required to provide a string of items. Nurses were also reported to have insisted on particular product brands or rejected used sheets and old cloths intended as nappies all of which limited poor women’s access to skilled deliveries at such facilities.
The report dubbed ‘Tracking Health MDGs: Beneficiary Perspectives- Ghana Civil Society MDGs Campaign was launched at a forum “Stand Up and Take Action Against Maternal Deaths in Ghana”, organised by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR) in collaboration with the Health Platform in Accra.
The content of the report is divided into eight main parts namely child health, care-seeking behaviour, sanitation, immunisation and maternal prophylaxis, treated bed nets, maternal health, HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis and malaria. The report also addresses the identified goals, targets and indicators of the official MDG list as well as priorities indicated in the Ghana Health Service’s current Programme of Work.
The forum comes on the heels of of the 2008 Ghana Millennium Development Goals Report which said that “Maternal mortality rate at 451 deaths at 100,000 live births is high and Ghana is unlikely to attain the target of reducing by three quarters, the maternal mortality ratio between 1990 and 2015, even though maternal health care has improved over the past 20 years.”
Giving a review of the document, the Director of the Local Government Institute, Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye, said the report focused on five selected districts – Agona East, Bongo, Builsa, Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) and Kwahu North.
She said the current report also expanded on the previous effort which involved three districts — Bongo, KEEA and Kwahu-North.
Dr Ofei-Aboagye said the low knowledge on the danger signs in pregnancy as shown in the report was a problem on which action must be stepped up.
However, she said the report indicated that more women were participating in ante-natal care was rewarding, while the fact that women recognised the importance of formal facilities in the event of obstetric emergencies was also encouraging.
She said, non-medical factors such as transport challenges to facility-based healthcare institutions in rural areas, attitude of care givers, differential interpretation of the policy on free maternal care and what the National Health Insurance Scheme paid for and what it did were still barriers to maternal health and should not be ignored in discussions aimed at improving maternal health.
The report also recommended a lot of education to counter constraining beliefs shrouding the experience of pregnancy.
At the launch of the report, the Regional Programme Manager of Abantu for Development, Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, said it was unacceptable for a woman to be pregnant for nine months and then lose the baby or her life and called for concerted efforts to address the situation adding that ‘zero tolerance for maternal deaths should be our target”.
Mrs Elizabeth Vaah, who is also a victim of maternal death, called on policy makers to stop paying lip service to maternal mortality and embark on urgent measures to address the issues.
For her part, the Executive Director of ARHR, Ms Vicky Okine said the apparent sluggish progress in achieving the health-related goals required a new strategy and renewed commitment from both the government and civil society.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Dzigbordi — The alluring marketing woman of the year

Saturday, September 18, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 3)
 
By Rebecca Kwei
THERE has not been a turning back for Mrs Dzigbordi K. Dosoo since she set up Allure salon with only two people in a living room in Osu, a suburb of Accra in 1998.
Twelve years down the line, Allure has transitioned into Allure Africa of which Dzigbordi is the founder and CEO, an award-winning premier spa group in Accra with an office in Washington DC, USA.
Allure Africa seeks to develop and grow premium spa companies throughout Africa, with emphasis on forging international strategic partnerships.
For having consistently marketed the Allure brand successfully in Ghana and beyond, Dzigbordi was last weekend adjudged the Marketing Woman of the Year by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIMG).
Part of the citation read “Your visibility has been strong in the areas of marketing research, education and advocacy. You have raised the standards in spa, health and wellness and beauty industry in Ghana.”
The Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Ibrahim M. Awal, received the Marketing Man of the Year Award.
“I feel privileged. It’s a great honour and I believe this shows that the efforts that we put in our day-to-day activities does not go unrecognised” she said of her award in an interview with The Mirror.
Dzigbordi said back in 1998, she realised that the concept of spa was non-existent and “I chose to start from the bottom within the salon industry, grow within it, educate and advocate until we were ready for the spa concept,” she explained.
Within four months, the ‘two-man’ salon had become a sole proprietorship in a shop which led to the opening of another shop in Labone where the new branch’s name, Allure, meaning ‘attraction’ started.
In order to have a one-stop beauty salon, the Allure Beauty Palace was opened in 2002 which became a limited liability company in 2003.
Aside ‘alluring’ people to her beauty palace, Dzigbordi had also run another company, Business Linkages International, a financial services consultancy, which transitioned into the Eagle Group in 2004.
The Eagle Group which employed about 80 people then was the holding company of Allure Ghana Limited, a beauty services company (which encompasses Allure Beauty Palace, Allure Sales Distribution Centre and Allure Spa in the City), Eagle Consulting International, an investment, trade, business and project consultancy with offices in the US and Accra and G’CINDKS Services Limited, a catering and hospitality service company which provides banqueting, event management and rental services and also runs a restaurant, Nudufe, at Osu, in Accra.
However, the year 2007 marked a turning point for Allure. The business model was restructured to provide technical leadership in wellness grooming and beauty and thus all the other business lines were discontinued. The Eagle Group became Allure Africa which focused on services, product distribution, education and consulting within the spa industry.
Another important milestone for Allure Africa was in 2009 when Iyaba was organised. Iyaba is an innovative concept of Africa’s premier spa and beauty trade exhibition and conference.
Iyaba, which has become an annual event, brings together key international manufacturers and African buyers in the spa and beauty industry under one roof to network, build capacity and make sales.
Recently, Allure Africa has also introduced a new authentically African natural aromatherapy product line, Kanshi.
Described as one of the new breed of young female entrepreneurs shaking up corporate Ghana, Dzigbordi concedes that she has not taken her eyes off the vision of her company being known and acknowledged as the premier service company.
“I can say three things about myself: I’m a consultant by career choice; a wellness and skincare expert by passion and an entrepreneur by experience” she said.
That’s true! Throughout her schooling days, she had studied business courses. After her secondary education at Accra Girls’ Secondary School, she left Ghana for the United States where she studied at Virginia State University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting.
Later, at Syracuse, New York, she did her post-graduate course in banking and finance and this she combined with working at Onbank & Trust, a bank in the US.
Dzigbordi also had a stint with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in Washington DC before relocating to Ghana in 1998.
Wondering why she has spread her ‘entrepreneurial wings’ this far? Dzigbordi said she was inspired when she was very young by her late grandmother, Madam Emelia Annan, who was able to become wealthy by venturing into small businesses.
Her father, the late Tennyson Emmanuel Kwaku was also an inspiration. She said her father aside being a lawyer also had other businesses and recalled that at the tender age of 12, she was working on her father’s accounts for his businesses.
“Growing up, I wanted to be a lawyer because of my father but by age 12, my entrepreneurial edge had fledged. Watching my father and grandmother made me realise you can do more than one business and be successful” she said.
Dzigbordi says running a business has its day-to-day operational challenges but at the end, it is about how one is able to serve his or her clients; ensuring that one is well-equipped and being able to deliver that counts.
She admitted that working in Ghana has not been easy but having networked with the right people has been worthwhile.
She believes that challenges come to give lessons and the lessons learnt everyday helps to transform people.
“My own life has been transformed, the evolution to get to this stage has been wonderful. What is about to come in the future is what drives me to put in my best. For Allure Africa, the future has just began.”
“In the next five years, I see Allure Africa without any limits; having achieved the vision it set out for itself; expand the vision to other territories by God’s help”.
A very affable, person, Dzigbordi is determined to inspire young ladies to be all they can be. She has taken young ladies with potential and mentoring them in her own way.
“I don’t make the mentoring formal. I believe people come across your path for a reason and that is destiny”.
Aside her stripes as a business consultant, ‘beauty enthusiast’ and an entrepreneur, Dzigbordi is a very spiritual person and says she loves her family and work, as well as spending lots of time at home with her daughter, Fafali and husband, Lionel Vanlare Dosoo, a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
A director of Zonta International Club of Accra II, and a member of the Governing Council of United Way Ghana, she also finds time to play lawn tennis.
Dzigbordi advised young ladies that in whatever they venture into, they should seek God first; then develop their education and careers “then all the other things will follow”.
Sounding philosophical, she said “If you build it, they will come. Once you establish yourself people will gravitate towards you”.

Monday, September 13, 2010

First consignment of AMFm drugs arrive

Saturday, September 11, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 13)

By Rebecca Kwei
THE first consignment of CO-pay drugs under the Affordable Medicines Facility-Malaria (AMFm) has arrived in the country and will soon be rolled out.
The AMFm is an initiative to ensure that people suffering from malaria have access to inexpensive, effective anti-malaria treatment in the form of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT).
The Programme Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Dr Constance Bart-Plange, made this known when members of the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN), a group of journalists and scientists working to fight malaria paid a visit to the offices of the programme in Accra.
She explained that the roll of the first consignment of three million treatment doses have not yet been rolled out since that of the medicines for the public sector has not been received yet.
Dr Bart-Plange noted that ACTs were not affordable to many people but under the AMFm it will be very cheap at a price as little as GH¢1.10p and expressed the hope that it will stop people from using chloroquine and other monotherapies which were no longer effective treatment for malaria.
She explained that under the AMFm which is been hosted by the Global Fund with the support of UNITAID and members of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership there was a financing mechanism for drug manufacturers to reduce the price of ACTs to ensure that the poor and vulnerable in society get access to the medicines.
She said there was also the need to educate the public not to equate the low cost of the ACTs under the AMFm facility to low quality since the medicines were of good quality and have been approved by the World Health Organisation.
Dr Bart-Plange expressed concern about the over diagnosing of malaria and said it was important that any fever presented at the hospital should be confirmed through microscopy or the rapid diagnostic test (RDT) to be malaria.
“The era where every fever was malaria is over” she stressed.
To this end, she said the NMCP has distributed a lot of RDT kits to health facilities and pharmacies to ensure that people are confirmed to be having malaria before are given an anti-malarial.
Dr Bart-Plange noted that the frequent use of malarial drugs when one does not have malaria leads to abuse of the drug.
On the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs), she said a survey showed that almost every household in Ghana had an ITN but it was the “sleeping in the ITN” that was the problem.
However, she said even if adults do not sleep under the ITNs it was important that children and pregnant women who were most vulnerable to malaria slept under them.
She said the programme also piloted an Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) project in the north and Obuasi and it will soon be rolled out nation-wide to cover 45 districts where it was feasible.
Dr Bart-Plange urged the media to continue the education that the anopheles mosquito which transmits the parasite causing malaria does not breed in filth but rather in relatively clean stagnant waters.
She commended AMMREN for its efforts in the fight against malaria and gave the assurance that the NMCP will continue to collaborate with the group.
The Ghana Country Co-ordinator of AMMREN, Mrs Clare Banoeng-Yakubo thanked the NMCP for its support over the years and expressed the hope that the deliberations will go a long way to improve the lives of people through malaria control.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Nikki finds her rhythm on screen

Saturday, September 4, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 3)

By Rebecca Kwei
Nikoletta Samonas (popularly called Nikki) ‘accidentally’ landed in the movie industry, and she seems to be loving every bit of her new found passion.
So far she has featured in more than 10 movies having had her break in Pretty Queen in 2008, which featured Jackie Appiah and Majid Mitchel.
“I would say the movies found me because I had gone to see a friend whose house was been used to shoot a movie and I was recruited to be part of that film ” she recalled in an interview with The Mirror.
Although that movie “Don Caritas” did not make waves it did serve as a spring board for Nikki to get noticed in the movie industry.
She later got roles in Beyonce 1 & 2, War of Roses, Desperate Measure, Red Label, Love and Bullets, Wrong Line, DNA Test.
Her latest flick, Deadly Obsession featuring Yvonne Nelson and Jim Iyke is set to be released next month in which she plays a psychopath.
Although being an actress was not on the cards for Nikki initially, her entry into the make believe world also sprung from her involvement in modelling and television advertisements.
According to Nikki she met one Ekow Daniel who heard her sing in church who took her to OM Studios for her to feature in a music video clip of Tinny’s song “Mamle” featuring Adane Best in 2004.
That video clip propelled her to get an advertising contract with Tigo, a Telecommunications company for two years from 2007 to 2008. She was Face of Tigo in 2007.
Nikki also appeared in the Septrin Soap, Éclat Gel and Wisdom toothbrush and mouthwash advertisements on television and was also a freelance model.
Presently, she has just secured a contract with Charterhouse to present Rhythmz, a music video show on TV with Chris Attoh.
Although acting is not a full time profession for Nikki, she says “I love it. It’s fun. You get to express yourself in so many ways that is not the natural you,” she said with a broad smile.
The free spirited Nikki who is in her early 20s is the only child of her dad Stephanus Samonas, a Greek (deceased) and Felicia Adjei.
Born in Tema, she attended Deks Preparatory School also in Tema for her basic education and then continued at Holy Child Senior High School in Cape Coast where she offered Graphic Design because she loved arts — drawing and painting and completed in 2003.
No wonder she received the best Graphic Designer awards in 2002 and 2003 and outstanding award for combining sports effectively with academic work in the same years at Holy Child School.
She was a member of the Entertainment Committee and the Sports Prefect of the school.
After Holy Child, Nikki continued at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) graduating with a BA in Communication Design in 2009.
In the near future Nikki hopes to open her own company that will engage in showbiz productions, continue modelling as well as groom aspiring models.
Nikki is in a relationship with a lovely man whose name she would not mention. When not acting, modelling or presenting Rhythmz she loves to swim, play basketball, watch movies, which she says is an inspiration to her to offer her best in the movies in which she acts.
Do you love salsa? Then you have something in common with Nikki. She is a salsa dancing freak!

Journalists attend course in IT

Saturday, August 28, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 27)

By Rebecca Kwei
FIFTEEN female journalists have undergone a three-day course in Information Technology to build their capacity in modern ways of communicating and processing news.
The course organised by Women, Media and Change (WOMEC), an NGO with sponsorship from the Global Fund for Women, was on the theme: “ICT and the Media”.
WOMEC which was founded in 1994 aims at bringing about change in women’s lack of awareness of the power of the media in shaping and pursuing their goals.
Information technology officers of the Centre for IT Professional Development (CIPD) of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) took the participants who were drawn from both the print and electronic media through programmes such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Access and Blogging.
A media consultant, Mrs Charity Binka, said the course was a new approach to empower female journalists not only as ICT users, but also to be creative researchers with technology.
She said the course was also to aid the participants in their search and dissemination of information.
“The workshop is to nurture female journalists in the effective use of the computer with skills to access, browse the Internet to expand their knowledge base in a competitive world” Mrs Binka emphasised.
She said information technology had become the life blood of every business and since the world was adapting more towards an information-based society, it was important for women to acquire such skills so that they were not left behind.
An IT Officer of CIPD, Mr Albert Quaicoe, encouraged the participants to build on the skills they have acquired since Information Technology changes everyday.

'Stop embellishing news items'

Saturday, August 14, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 34)

By Rebecca Kwei
A LINGUIST and broadcaster, Nana Anima Wiafe-Akenten, has called on local language newsreaders to avoid embellishing and exaggerating news items since it has the tendency to create conflict or incite a group against the other.
She noted that some of the proverbs, idiomatic expressions and other literally devices used by the newsreaders most of the time distorts the core message, leads to misreporting and misinformation, subjects the news to different interpretation, and tends to attack or abuse the newsmaker. 
“Some of the translators although may mean well, cast innuendoes and use invectives and end up attacking the personality behind the issue or newsmakers. It is culturally unacceptable to speak ill of an elderly person,” she said.
Mrs Wiafe-Akenten made the call when she made a presentation on “Language, Culture and the Media”, at a workshop organised by the Cultural Initiative Support Programme in Akosombo.
Giving the example of the Rwandan conflict, she said it was just a statement made on radio which led to the war in that country and there was the need for local language news readers, especially, in Akan to be cautious of how they presented the news.
She said the liberalisation of the airwaves had led to the emergence of many radio and television stations which was a welcome idea but there was the need to draw attention to certain developments which if not checked, may adversely affect the essence of news presentation and pose serious challenges to cultural values and the art of speaking.
Mrs Wiafe-Akenten said when newsreaders embellish or exaggerate the news items, some people saw it as the creativity of the presenters or their proficiency in the language but noted that from the communication point of view, that was inappropriate and could be said to lack professionalism.
Additionally, she said, the audience tend to focus on the embellishment by trying to understand the proverbs, idioms and other devices being used, rather than focusing on the news and what was supposed to be a serious issue became a form of entertainment.
She said there were culturally relevant and acceptable ways to use a language by paying attention to the norms and rules that governed the use of the language.
“In the Akan language, certain concepts are considered literally unmentionable, that is, verbal taboos. For instance, if one has to mention the male and female reproductive organs in a given context, he/she has to use a euphemism” she explained.
She said in the Akan cultural context, unapologetic use of those words made the speaker’s audience see him/her as uncouth or uncultured.
She observed that over the years, finding a fair balance between what was culturally acceptable and journalistically correct have been compromised all in the name of “scoop — being the first to break the news”.
In an effort to make the Ghanaian media one that is linguistically, journalistically and culturally sound, Mrs Wiafe-Akenten said a group known as Language Watchers made up of linguist, language experts and media practitioners will soon come out to monitor and help curb the use of insulting, inflammatory and harsh words in the media by social commentators, phone in callers, presenters and politicians.

We Know Politics II launched

Saturday, August 7, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 26)

By Rebecca Kwei
A project to improve the low level of women's participating in policy-making and government representation has been launched in Accra.
Dubbed 'We know Politics II' is aimed at creating an environment where women are able to effectively participate in politics.
Currently, women account for only 19 (8.3 per cent) out of the 230 positions in parliament and only 6.5 per cent of district chief executives within local government structures and 11 out of the 170 Metropolitan/Municipal/District Chief Executives.
The project is being implemented by WiLDAF, Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre, the Hunger Project and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA Ghana) and sponsored by the European Union represented by the European Commission in Ghana, UK Aid, Ghana, Womankind, World-wide and UK Aid, London.
In 2008, the 'We Know Politics I' project was initiated which ensured that concerns of women remained an integral part of the political campaign that year.
Giving an overview of the second phase of the 'We Know Politics' project, the National Programme Co-ordinator of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), Ms Bernice Sam said the three-year project had targeted 24 districts in the 10 regions of the county.
The beneficiary districts are Jomoro, Shama, Evalue Gwira, Tarkwa Nsuem, Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem, Breman Asikuma, Assin South, Ho East, Keta, Kpandu, Ga South and Dangme West.
The rest are Lambusi, Sisala East, Jaman South, Jaman North, Asante Akim South, Obuasi, New Juabeng, Lower West Akyem, Savelugu Nantong, Nalerigu, Navrongo and Bolgatanga.
Ms Sam said the criteria for selecting the districts were that they had female Members of Parliament (MP); female Metropolitan or District Chief Executives; had dynamic women with potential to contest elections and or were at difficult areas where women had challenges engaging in politics.
Some of the activities that will be undertaken are the training of 600 community people in governance, sensitisation workshops, production of a documentary featuring 12 key women in leadership positions, 2nd Women's Dialogue with presidential candidates in 2012, meeting with the NDC government and four political parties to assess the progress of women in Ghana since 2008 and networking with journalists, editors and women's organisations.
Ms Sam said it was expected that the “We Know Politics II” project will among others increase the effectiveness of women’s participation in politics to address women’s issues at the local and national levels by 2013 and help the government and main political parties produce affirmative action policies to ensure at least 40 per cent women’s representation in party positions and elections.
The Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, who launched the project, said the low number of women in policy-making limits women's contribution to development, poverty reduction and to the achievement of gender equality.
She said although women in government had been talking about the low representation of women in public office, a lot of pressure from outside would also help to address the situation.
She, therefore, congratulated WiLDAF and its partners and sponsors for the initiative.
Mrs Azumah-Mensah announced that her ministry and the Ministry of Local Government would embark on a programme which would identify 20 women who would be supported to take part in the forthcoming district assembly elections in October, this year.

Document to promote rational use of medicines

Saturday, August 7, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 27)

By Rebecca Kwei
The sixth edition of the Standard Treatment Guidelines (STGs) and Essential Medicines List (EML) to promote the rational use of medicines has been launched in Accra.
The STGs are scientifically developed documents that assist prescribers in deciding on appropriate treatments for specific clinical conditions, while the EML is an accompanying document that contains the list of medicines to be procured by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and reimbursable by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
The Chairman of the STG Review Committee, Dr Francis Ofei, said the STGs were valuable tools which would, among others, help in the sustainability of the NHIA, ensure that patients received medications appropriate to their clinical needs at the lowest cost to them and improve the quality of health received by patients.
He said since 1993, the MoH, through the Ghana National Drugs Programme, had been involved with the regular development and promotion of comprehensive therapeutic guidelines for use by all its agencies.
He said the document was the sixth edition of the ministry's officially approved prescribers' and dispensers' guide for all levels of health care.
Dr Ofei said care had also been taken to align the health insurance benefits package to that edition, adding that it had incorporated additional information on blood disorders such myeloma, leukaemia and lymphoma and specific cancers such as cervix and breast.
Topics on eye diseases such as glaucoma, conjunctivitis, trachoma and cataract and attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) for psychiatry have also been included.
Adding to the advantages of the STGs, the Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, whose speech was read on his behalf, said apart from the document giving guidance for selecting the most appropriate drugs for use and enriching doctors’ prescribing pattern, it would enable health insurance institutions to enter into partnership with the ministry to ensure that patients were cared for at the least affordable cost.
"The treatment guidelines will enable healthcare providers to programme effectively for health logistics, thereby using funds more effectively. The information base for forecasting and ordering drugs will be easily strengthened, thereby making restocking a much more scientific process," he added.
Dr Kunbuor appealed to chief executives of teaching hospitals, regional directors and other stakeholders in health to ensure that the new guidelines were well disseminated among prescribers.
For his part, the Chief Executive of the NHIA, Mr Sylvester A. Mensah, said one of the biggest issues the insurance scheme was facing was irrational prescribing, with its cost implications which posed a threat to the sustainability of the scheme.
"Clinical audits and a claims verification exercise have shown that many of the problems facing the NHIS are to do with prescriptions not in line with the MoH’s laid down policies on treatments. Many prescribers also prescribe medicines above the levels agreed by the experts at the MoH," he explained.
Mr Mensah expressed the hope that the use of the STGs would help minimise treatment variations and also promote the appropriate use of the most cost-effective treatments, provide guidance for health professionals on the diagnosis and treatment of specific clinical conditions and serve as a reference point by which to judge the quality of prescribing medicines.

Friday, August 6, 2010

'We know Politics II' project in the offing

Saturday, July 31, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 19)

By Rebecca Kwei
In 2008, the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) and three other NGOs implemented the “We Know Politics: Hearing women’s voices in the 2008 elections” project a bid to increase the participation of women in policy-making.
The project made gains in ensuring that the concerns of women remained an integral part of the political campaign in 2008.
According to the National Programme Co-ordinator of WiLDAF, Ms Bernice Sam, the project’s outcomes demonstrated a dearth of understanding of government and governance.
She said more districts and particularly more women need information, capacity and skills to engage with government at the district and national levels.
“NGOs do not have to wait until an election year before providing support for individuals and communities,” she added.
Consequently, Ms Sam said WiLDAF Ghana and its partners are continuing to engage with citizens of districts for the next three years by implementing the phase two of the “We Know Politics” project.
The project is titled “Good governance through increasing women’s participation in Ghana’s Political Processes (We Know Politics II) and it will be launched on August 4, 2010.
The other partners are Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre, the Hunger Project and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA Ghana) and sponsored by the European Union represented by the European Commission in Ghana, UK Aid, Ghana, Womankind World-wide UK/UK Aid, London.
Ms Sam said the project will target 24 districts in the 10 regions of Ghana and it will aim at creating an environment where women are able to effectively participate in politics and public life.
It is expected that the “We Know Politics II” project will among others increase effectiveness of women’s participation in politics to address women’s issues at the local and national levels by 2013 and the government and main political parties produce affirmative action policies to ensure at least 40 per cent women’s representation in party positions and elections.

National screening programme for cervical cancer necessary

Saturday, July 31, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 17)

By Rebecca Kwei
Cervical cancer is one of the commonest cancers in women in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana.
According to experts, every two minutes a woman somewhere in the world dies from cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is cancer that forms in tissues of the cervix (the organ connecting the uterus and the vagina). It is usually a slow-growing cancer and may not have symptoms in the early stages but can be found with a pap test. It is almost always caused by a virus called human papillomavirus (HPV). You can get HPV by having sexual contact with someone who has it.
Early symptoms of cervical cancer may include bleeding from the vagina that is not normal, a change in your menstrual cycle that you cannot explain, pain during sex and vaginal discharge tinged with blood.
The statistics available on cervical cancer are quite staggering. In 2008, cervical cancer accounted for 275,000 deaths world-wide, with 88 per cent occurring in less developed countries.
By 2030, it is predicted that cervical cancer mortality will increase by 77 per cent in less developed countries and by 57 per cent world-wide, bringing the global burden to 433,000 deaths.
Other statistics estimate that 79,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in Africa every year and 61,000 (78 per cent) of women die of the disease in Africa.
However, the many deaths from cervical cancer can be avoided.
In developed countries, cervical cancer is a rarity, not because women are not exposed to the risk factors but the incidence has reduced considerably because of well-structured national screening programmes to detect pre-cancerous lesions and early stages of the cancers.
Sadly, well-structured national screening programmes for cervical cancer and breast cancer are not available in most African countries, which is further worsening the burden of the disease.
At the 4th Stop Cervical Cancer in Africa Conference held in Accra, the first ladies of Ghana, Mrs Ernestina Naadu Mills; South Africa, Madam Tobeka Madiba-Zuma; Niger, Mrs T. Salou, and Swaziland, Queen Nomsa LaMatsebula, minced no words in calling for an effective national screening programme for both cervical and breast cancer in African countries.
They noted that most cervical cases could be prevented and for those who developed the disease, if it was detected early through screening tests, it could be cured.
For Mrs Mills, cervical and breast cancer screening could be integrated into women’s health programmes so that when and where available, any woman who went for breast cancer screening could also be screened for cervical cancer at the same time, and vice versa.
“In a few countries where screening tests are available, this approach is practised so that any woman who attends a clinic for ante-natal and post-natal care and family planning, for example, or any other encounter with the health service is offered the opportunity to get screened,” she said.
Mrs Mills also called for more awareness of cervical cancer and also the need to come up with culturally sensitive messages that would lead to behavioural change, since there were a lot of misconceptions about the disease in Africa.
Currently, primary prevention of cervical cancer can be achieved through vaccination and Mrs Mills further called for support to mobilise resources for the establishment of a functional cervical cancer vaccination programme across the continent.
“Problems of cervical cancer are major tragedies. We must all help to save the lives of our women,” she added.

Juliet — Acting today, singing tomorrow

Saturday, July 31, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 3)

By Rebecca Kwei
Of late, pretty actress Juliet Ibrahim Safo is struggling to keep the smile off her face. And the reason? She just won the Movie Personality Award organised by City People Magazine held in Lagos, Nigeria, on July 18.
The award is given to the movie star who dominated discussions in the entertainment industry in the last year for many reasons.
Having been nominated alongside top actresses Jackie Appiah, Yvonne Nelson and Lydia Forson, Juliet says, “I’m extremely grateful and excited about this award. It is really going to spur me on to give my all in my acting career.”
Prior to the award, the same magazine had, in May this year, awarded Juliet for her Outstanding Performance in the Movie Industry at a ceremony held in Accra.
Another feather in her cap which keeps Juliet smiling is the fact that she got married to her sweetheart, Kwadwo Safo, a pilot and son of the Head of the Kristo Asafo Church, Apostle Kwadwo Safo, some time this year.
At the prime age of 24, Juliet has achieved a lot for herself. Aside from starring in about 50 movies to date, she is also very business-minded and runs a beauty salon, Envoque Beauty Parlour, at Osu; a modelling agency, Dolfins Agency, and a production house, Jewels Productions. She plans to open a unisex boutique soon.
Juliet’s fans should watch out because she has another talent which she is yet to showcase. She loves to sing and, according to her, she already has three songs she is working on and will come out with an album very soon.
Taking The Mirror down memory lane on how she got into acting, Juliet said when she was growing up, she had always wanted to be in the spotlight.
So, as little girl then living in Cote d’Ivoire, she performed playlets and talent shows in school.
When she returned to Ghana in 2000, she realised that the movie industry was picking up and so she decided to give it a try.
Consequently, she was introduced to an actor and movie producer, Jake Aernan, who was producing a series on the life of refugees. She starred in them, but there was a setback and the series never saw the light of day.
She again participated in another series which also did not materialise.
Juliet, however, did not lose hope and so while furthering her education at the Ghana Institute of Languages, she participated in the institute’s beauty pageant, which she won in 2005.
“Winning the pageant opened a lot of doors for me. I started modelling for GTP, Woodin, Joyce Ababio and other designers, as well as Soft Sheen Carson, and appeared in some commercials,” she said.
She again participated in another pageant, Miss Francophonie, in 2006 and although a winner could not be declared because of a setback, a judge who noticed her potential later hinted her of an auditioning by Venus Films and that was where her journey to stardom started.
So what was intended to be a try out for a movie role turned out to be the unearthing of Juliet’s acting talent. She got to play her first movie role as Naomi, the girlfriend of a notorious armed robber, in the flick, Crime to Christ, alongside Majid Mitchel.
Juliet’s talent and passion got noticed by industry players and the movie roles started flooding in for her. So far, she has more than 50 films to her credit — Ghanaian and Ghana-Nigeria collaborations — the notable among them being Midnight Call, Marriage of Sorrows, In the Eyes of my Husband, Queen’s Pride, Naked Weapon, Yankee Boys, Honour my will, Royal Storm, Hidden, Blood Fight and Dead End.
In all of these, she has proved her versatility and the fact that she is a force to reckon with in the movie industry.
Her latest movies, 4Play, DNA Test and Enemy of my Soul, have received great reviews, while Millions will be premiered on August 6.
According to Juliet, her husband is not worried about her career and that he is very supportive.
“We watch my movies together, read the scripts and he is my biggest critic,” she said.
Asked if her husband was not worried about her playing romantic roles, she said she and her husband had an agreement on how to shoot certain roles and so he was not worried.
Juliet has big dreams and hopes to become one of the best writers, producers, directors and actresses in the not-too- distant future.
Already, she is working on her first movie which will come out this year.
Juliet is the eldest daughter of Hussein Ibrahim, a Lebanese, and Elizabeth Ibrahim, a half Liberian, half Ghanaian. Born in Accra, she left for Lebanon and then Cote d’Ivoire. Her three other siblings are Sonia, Nabil and Nadia.
She returned to Ghana in the latter part of 2000 and later attended the Ghana Institute of Languages, graduating with a diploma in Spanish and English in 2006.
She also obtained a diploma in Advertising and Marketing from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2009 and is presently offering an online course in acting.
She has plans of furthering her education at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Sickle cell disease still seeking solutions

Saturday, July 24, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 13)

By Rebecca Kwei
This year, 2010, marks 100 years since the medical world was made aware of sickle cell disease through the first publication in the scientific literature and yet it remains a major health problem still seeking solutions that will benefit people with the disease.
Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that affects red blood cells. One person cannot get it from another one.
The disease is inherited from both parents and not just from the mother. Most people with AS or AC blood are not aware of it and do not know they can have children with sickle cell disease.
It is estimated that more than 350,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease in Africa every year. Less that two per cent of babies born in rural Africa with the most severe form of the disease survive beyond five years and sickle accounts for more than six per cent of all mortality in young children in Africa.
In Ghana, it is estimated that 12,000 babies are born with sickle cell annually.
Clearly with such statistics of people suffering from sickle cell, especially children, the First Lady, Mrs Naadu Mills, hit the nail on the head when she called on scientists and governments at the first global congress on sickle cell disease taking place in Accra to do a lot more about the disease than they had done in the past.
"Being very much concerned over the plight of families affected by the disease, it is my personal hope that the results of the congress will lead to reduced death, pain and suffering of our children and adults with sickle cell disease and that strategies will be adopted to increase health education, screening, and counselling in order to reduce the public health burden of the disease," she said.
Mrs Mills mentioned that examples in several countries show that with early diagnosis of the disease through new-born screening, family health education, antibiotic prophylaxis and organised comprehensive medical care, children need not die early or suffer painful and debilitated lives.
The Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbour, who acknowledged that modern medical services had not paid much attention to non-communicable, genetic diseases such as sickle cell, however, gave the assurance that his ministry was committed to developing policies to bring about the establishment of sickle cell disease as one of the public health priorities.
"The Ghana Health Service, with support from the World Health Organisation, has recently developed a document titled "Strategic framework for the management, prevention and control of sickle cell disease in Ghana". It is the desire of government to adopt this framework to develop educational, screening, and clinical programmes throughout the country," he assured.
As a first step, Dr Kunbour said government has committed itself to the scale up of the pilot New-born Screening Project carried out in Kumasi and Tikrom into a National Programme of New-born Screening for Sickle Cell Disease.
The pilot screening programme initiated by Prof. Kwaku Ohene-Frempong of the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, with funding from the US National Institutes of Health and led in Ghana by Prof. Francis Nkrumah of the Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research, has proven the feasibility of this life-saving programme in Africa.
Dr Kunbour said as of December 2009, the new-born screening project in Kumasi and Tikrom had screened more than 300,000 new-borns, found more than 5,000 babies with sickle cell disease and had enrolled close to 4,000 of them at the Sickle Cell Clinic at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi for regular and comprehensive management.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sicke Cell Foundation of Ghana, Dr Kwame D. Fordwor, said the foundation in the past five years has worked in collaboration with other organisations to initiate the national new-born screening programme with assistance from the government of Brazil which resulted in the signing of the Brazil-Ghana Technical Co-operation Agreement in Sickle Cell Disease in October last year, among others.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Lydia Forson — In love with acting

Saturday, July 17, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 31)

By Rebecca Kwei
SHE kicked into high gear as an actress only a few years ago and though some may put her fast rise as one of the nation’s well-loved on-screen personalities down to mere good luck, bubbly actress Lydia Forson ascribes her current prominent showing on the movie radar to a wholehearted pursuit of something she truly loves.
The award-winning actress, who has recently risen to the status of endorsing high-end consumer products, describes her life as one big movie which has already travelled on some memorable scenes and is set to unravel even more thrilling ones.
Movie lovers and television viewers know her from Run Baby Run, Different Shades of Blue, Scorned, The Perfect Picture and A Sting In A Tale, but she was bitten by the acting bug before those productions came along.
Though she was the Entertainment Prefect during her days at St Louis Secondary School, she didn’t fancy acting till she got to the University of Ghana, Legon, and had the opportunity to play a cameo role in the Hotel St James television series.
“I was very nervous at the beginning but settled later and totally enjoyed myself on the set. Though I was to be in only one episode, the director liked what I did and later wrote more scenes with me in mind. I ended up with more substantial screen time than I had envisaged,” she recalled.
After her stint in Hotel St James, she played a supporting role in the award-winning movie, Run Baby Run in 2006. The flick won four African Movie Academy awards and was also adjudged the Best Narrative Film at the 17th Pan African Film Festival.
Becoming more active in the movie industry, Lydia had the chance to again star in another television series, Different Shades of Blue.
It was not until she participated in the Next Movie Star reality show in Lagos, Nigeria, where she placed fourth, that she decided acting was what she wanted to do.
“I learnt a lot during the period and I firmly decided that acting was going to be my life. I was confident and did not care what anyone else thought of me. I was determined to push on.”
Lydia, who sounded very religious throughout the interview, said God has a plan for everyone and “if you put your trust and have faith in Him, you will succeed in all your endeavours.”
Her first major break was in 2008 when she played the lead role as Dea in Shirley Frimpong-Manso’s Scorned movie. Lydia said to date, Scorned remains one of her favourite movies because she loved the story line and the role she played.
“I played different characters as Dea and it was something I had always wanted to do so people could see my versatility.”
Scorned definitely brought her into the limelight and this led to her first African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) nomination as the Best Upcoming Female Actress and Joy FM’s Night with the Stars Best Actress for 2009 award.
Lydia has had offers flooding in for her to play roles in various productions. She, however, maintains that she is very particular about good quality scripts that challenge the actor and not willing to compromise on standards so did not accept most of those offers. There has been some backlash for that but she has stood her ground and will not feature in anything she is not comfortable with.
The next critically acclaimed film in which Lydia proved her versatility and validated her status as a serious actress was in the 2009 movie, The Perfect Picture. Critics have praised the film and Lydia’s dynamic performance solidified her presence in the Ghanaian movie industry.
Together with Jackie Appiah and Naa Ashorkor, she received the AMAA Best Actress in Lead Role award recently for their roles in Perfect Picture.
She played the lead role in yet another film from Shirley, A Sting In A Tale last year which was also nominated as the Best Narrative Film at the Pan African Film Festival.
It has not only been movies for Lydia. She recently took part in a play titled Vagina Monologue which she said made her fall in love with stage acting and would be doing more of that in the future.
According to Lydia, this year has been very busy for her as she is working on a lot of projects. She indicated that most of the things she is working on will be in fruition by the latter part of year adding that “Ghanaians should expect something mind blowing.”
There has been a lot of collaboration between Ghanaians and their Nigerian counterparts in the movie business and Lydia sees this as a good move.
“We are always talking about African unity. One way of achieving this is through movie collaboration. I hope in the years to come, more African countries will collaborate to make films,” she said.
She noted that the movie industry has come a long way and to revive and sustain it, there was the need for government, corporate bodies and individuals to invest in it.
Lydia is working on establishing the Free2bme Foundation — a mentorship programme to encourage unconventional and innovative thinking among the youth and inculcate in them the will to be anything but ordinary.
Born to Rev. Dr Mathias Forson of the Methodist Church and Janet Banfro, Lydia went to the United States at the age of six when her father pursued his doctoral degree. While there, she attended Wilmore Elementary School in Kentucky. The family later moved back to Ghana and she continued at the Akosombo International School through to St Louis Secondary School in Kumasi. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Information Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Lydia lights up when she talks about her family. She says her mom is her best friend and loves her brothers, Sam and Emmanuel, to bits.
She also loves dogs but unfortunately her three dogs: Tyson, Angel and Lucky died through poisoning.
She lives by Tupac Shakur’s assertion that “when my heart can beat no more, I hope that I die for a principle or a belief that I had lived for.”

'Re-evaluate H1N1 vaccination'

Saturday, July 17, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 13)

By Rebecca Kwei
The Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Advocacy and Training in Pharmacovigilance, Dr Alex Dodoo, has called for a re-evaluation of the large-scale rollout of the HINI vaccine nationwide.
He said any such large-scale deployment of vaccines should be informed by proper assessment of the risk and a good and rigorous determination of those most vulnerable and hence requiring vaccination.
“There are several people who would benefit from H1N1 vaccination but there are millions more for whom vaccination would present very little benefits” he said in an interview with The Mirror.
Dr Dodoo said the rollout should have been accompanied by very intensive and active monitoring for the occurrence of side effects to ensure that the known benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks posed by the vaccine itself.
“The fact that several people have complained of unacceptable side effects shows how important safety is to the public.Those likely to suffer severe consequences from H1N1 infection include pregnant women, people with serious pre-existing conditions like asthma and certain heart and lung conditions, as well as those with reduced immunity for instance cancer patients, HIV patients” he said.
Dr Dodoo explained that the benefits of vaccination to such people were expected to be higher than any side effects the vaccines might give.
However, for most normal adults, the H1N1 infection is likely to lead to mild symptoms. Hence, any severe side effects from the vaccine is not likely to be acceptable.
Since the nationwide H1N1 vaccination started, many people who have been vaccinated have complained of side effects such as dizziness, general weakness, reactions at the site of the injection such as hardening, swelling, pain and redness, fatigue and fever.
However, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in a press statement, vouched for the safety of the H1NI vaccine, indicating that it was to provide beneficiaries with protection against the disease.
It said although those adverse reactions, even after any drug administration were not unusual, the health authorities would deal with the reports with all the seriousness they deserved.
Dr Dodoo said the rollout of H1N1 vaccination to travellers to the World Cup and also to at-risk groups and vulnerable people was a good idea except that the very close monitoring that should have accompanied the rollout appeared to have been absent.
In addition, there has not been published evaluation of those events reported and what the implications of those are to the continuation of the mass immunisation.
Some people also claim they were not given any information on what to expect and what side effects may occur.  
“The reported side effects and associated media coverage of them following the large-scale rollout of the H1N1 vaccine to the public, however, raises serious concerns which call for an immediate re-evaluation of the decision to vaccinate everyone.
Apart from the identified vulnerable populations, what are the expected benefits and how much risk is there of contracting H1N1 given that the pandemic appears to have abated and several countries have stayed away from mass immunisation?” he queried.
”If we don’t rollout public health initiatives with good education and appropriate safety monitoring, we risk alienating the public and compromising these laudable initiatives.
“Vaccination is good but only when targeted at the right people and carried out with good education and information provision accompanied with robust safety monitoring and communication systems” Dr Dodoo added.
He said the public needed to be continuously assured of the safety of vaccines and the small risk of adverse reactions that a minority of patients may suffer.
Dr Dodoo also called for a robust risk management plan to accompany the large-scale immunisation of the Ghanaian public with the H1N1 vaccine and regular publication of the adverse events associated with the vaccine as is currently being done in many countries.
In another development, there have been public concerns by several global experts who have questioned the whole management of the pandemic by the WHO, citing possible conflicts of interest and profiteering by the pharmaceutical industry.
In an editorial and investigative piece by the British Medical Journal on June 3, this year, the authors mentioned the example of Poland which refused to be involved in stockpiling vaccines and anti-retrovirals, a decision which now appears very prudent since countries such as France and England which stockpiled these medicines are now finding ways to sell them to other countries.
Other serious issues were raised by the editorial which the WHO had since responded to officially. 

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Ghana to benefit from cleft lip, palate management project

Saturday, July 10, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 13)

By Rebecca Kwei
TRANSFORMING Faces Worldwide (TFW), a Canadian charity which helps cleft lip and palate management projects in developing countries, has extended its operations in Ghana for the next three years.
At a press briefing on the operations of the Cleft Lip and Palate Management Project (CLPMP), Ghana, the non-governmental organisation which had been working in the country since 2002 revealed that it has so far supported about 500 patients through surgery and a larger number of patients have received multi-disciplinary services.
The project which is located at the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre (RPSBC) at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital draws various health experts from both public and private health institutions to form a multi-disciplinary team.
Cleft lip and palate is a congenital anomaly or defect which causes a split of the lip and/or the roof of the mouth; a defect which allows someone to look into the mouth of a patient without the patient opening the mouth. Parents who want a ‘perfect baby’ are usually shocked when they are presented with such babies.
Problems associated with the defect are related to appearance, social stigma, failure to name the child, child not sent for immunisations, child not being sent to school, some not being allowed to live and also being abandoned by parents, mostly their fathers.
Medical problems linked with cleft lip are feeding problems, repeated ear infections, speech problems, hearing problems, learning difficulties, as well as other congenital problems such as heart, skeletal and genital problems.
According to Mr James Hottor, a representative of TFW, the NGO supports cleft lip and palate management projects in developing countries by providing funds for medical supplies, treatment and training of local cleft specialists among others.
He said TFW has projects in Bulgaria, Peru, Argentina, India, Nepal, Ethiopia, China and Thailand.
He said the goal of CLPMP, Ghana, was to evolve and sustain a comprehensive cleft lip and palate management in Ghana, pursue partnerships for the sustenance of the project and also provide assistance to poor persons with cleft lip and palate management.
The Executive Director of TFW, Mr Esteban Lasso, said close to 90,000 interventions have been performed for more than 6,000 patients.
These included reconstructive surgery, speech therapy, hearing tests and aids, breastfeeding counselling, dentistry/orthodontics, nutritional support, psychological counselling, ear, nose and throat (ENT) services.
He said a child was born with a cleft lip and palate every 11 minutes and that in many developing countries, access to multidisciplinary treatment was limited or lacking in quality.
Other challenges, he said, had to do with the ‘brain drain’ of local medical specialists which undermined the development of cleft centres and the fact that cleft lip and palate was a low priority for the overburdened health systems as well as limited funds.
He said there was, therefore, the need for long-term partnerships to build multidisciplinary teams and emphasis placed on building local capacity and training.
Dr Albert Paintsil, a member of the CLPMP, Ghana, said the cleft lip and palate defect occurred during the development of the face of the foetus in the first three months of pregnancy.
He noted that most mothers may not be aware of the pregnancy during that time and may engage in activities such as intake of alcohol and certain drugs, smoking, anticonvulsants, retinoic acid, steroids, lack of folic acid and vitamins and some herbal concoctions which may increase the risk factors of the baby developing the defect.
He said defects in the genetic material passed on to the child from the parents was also a factor.
Dr Paintsil emphasised that cleft lip and palate was not the result of witchcraft, unfaithfulness on the part of the woman, curse or the effect of a ‘bad look’ during pregnancy.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Are beauty queens getting 'ugly'

Saturday, July 3, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 27)

By Rebecca Kwei
As Ghanaians bask in the exploits of the Black Stars at the ongoing World Cup, one lady who may not be having fun right now is TV3’s Ghana’s Most Beautiful, Nasara Mariam Abdul Rauf.
Nasara has been stripped of her title by the organisers of the pageant, TV3, for allegedly stealing a mobile phone belonging to Miss UK when they camped in the Philippines in preparation for the Miss Earth 2009.
Nasara, however, insists she did not steal any phone but only ‘borrowed’ the phone to make calls.
“As far as I know, I am still Ghana’s Most Beautiful. I don’t have any problem with TV3, everything that is being said about me is false rumour and I leave it all to God” she told the Graphic Showbiz.
TV3 also says it arrived at the decision to strip Nasara of her title after series of investigations, internal discussions and evidence it had. The lady whose phone has caused the controversy is Miss UK, Kirsty Nichol who works as a model and lives in London. She is also a trained singer under the Royal Associated Board and the Academy Of Contemporary Music. She was crowned Miss Earth England 2009 at the Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, England.
The evidence TV3 had was an e-mail from Miss UK which was an itemised phone bill with lots of calls to Ghana at a time that the chip had disappeared. Efforts to get her comments on the unfolding drama were not successful.
In another development, Laura Anness, a teacher who was crowned Miss Cornwall and was set to participate in the Miss England final in Birmingham, has lost her crown after the organisers of the pageant discovered she had deceived them.
Her entry forms for 2010 said she was 22. So, too, were her entry forms for the competition in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Laura is, in fact, 27. Entrants have to be aged between 17 and 24. To make matters worse, the new Miss Cornwall actually lived in Plymouth — in Devon.
She was found out when Miss Cornwall organiser, Becky Chapman, spotted the age inconsistencies on the entry forms and then went to visit her Devon home.
Laura apologised and handed back her sash, crown, her 12-month modelling contract and £2,000 worth of prizes.
Another beauty queen, Venus Raj, who won the Pilipinas Universe title in the Philippines on March 6, 2010, was also stripped of her crown when the organisers discovered inconsistencies contained in her birth records, in contrast to her personal account of her birth.
In 2008, there was the case of a Mexican beauty queen, Laura Zuniga, who was detained on suspicion of drug and weapons violation was stripped of her crown in the Hispanoamerican queen pageant.
Laura was detained on December 22, 2008 along with seven men, some of them suspected to be drug traffickers. Authorities found a large stash of weapons, ammunition and $53,300 with them inside a vehicle.

Commit more resources to cervical cancer screening

Saturday, June 26, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 34)

By Rebecca Kwei
A CANCER CONTROL FOCAL PERSON of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Kofi Nyarko, has called on the government to commit more resources to the effective screening of cervical cancer in the country.
He said cervical cancer was the most common cancer affecting women in Ghana and the lack of an effective and systematic national testing or treatment as compared to other developed countries was increasing the cases of the disease.
Cervical cancer affects tissues of the cervix (the organ connecting the uterus and vagina). It is usually a slow-growing cancer that may not have symptoms but can be found with regular Pap tests (a procedure in which cells are scraped from the cervix and looked at under a microscope). Cervical cancer is almost always caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.
Dr Nyarko made this known during a press conference in Accra ahead of the 4th Stop Cervical Cancer in Africa to be held in Accra between July 25 and July 27 this year.
It will be on the theme: “Africa unite in action, mobilising political and financial support to strengthen cervical cancer prevention”.
The three-day international conference is in collaboration with Princess Nikky Breast and Cervical Cancer Foundation, a Nigerian based non-governmental organisation (NGO) at the forefront of breast and cervical cancer prevention and control in Africa.
Giving the cervical cancer statistics, Dr Nyarko said 274,000 deaths were recorded annually, out of which 61,000 (78 per cent) of those deaths were from Africa. About 79,000 women are diagnosed of cervical cancer in Africa each year.
He said women in developing world had the highest risk of developing cervical cancer because few are effectively screened.
He said although there had been interventions in Ghana such as the cervicare project to prevent and treat cervical cancer, there was the need for a systematic national campaign to increase awareness of the disease.
For his part, the Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, quoting from a World Health Organisation (WHO) studies, said that 18 per cent of all cancer deaths in Ghana was due to cervical cancer.
He noted that unfortunately, most of the cancers seen at the country’s health facilities were advanced cases which could have been cured if they had been detected early and that management of those advanced cases was very expensive.
“Prevention, early detection and treatment of early stages of cervical cancer is very cost effective and has good outcome,” he said.
Dr Kunbuor expressed the hope that conference would accelerate Ghana’s efforts at advocacy and awareness creation, as well as enhance the country’s efforts to implement a comprehensive cervical cancer prevention programme.
The Executive Director of Princess Nikky Breast Cancer Foundation, Princess Nikky Onyeri, said the conference was expected to advocate increased awareness of cervical cancer in Africa; to reduce stigmatisation of people suffering and living with cervical cancer.
She said the conference also had the objective to mobilise the needed resources for the development of policies, strategies and action to fight cervical cancer at national, regional and international levels.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Rally round the flag

Saturday, June 12, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 3)

By Rebecca Kwei
STILL having the notion that football is an exclusive men’s sport? Wrong.
In the past few years, the world’s most widely-followed sport has expanded its fan base as ladies have also been hit by the football bug as much as the men.
At various tournaments around the world, women have suddenly assumed the role of cheerleaders, beautifying the stands in their chic, colourful, national colours to cheer their teams to victory. Not just that, they seem to also understand the rules of the game.
As the 19th historic World Cup kicked off in South Africa yesterday with 32 teams, thousands of beautiful ladies lent their support to their teams.
It may not be official, but Miss Malaika 2009, Gezelle Maame Konadu Addai, sees herself as a chief cheerleader for the Black Stars and is optimistic that the Stars will shine during this tournament and particularly, when they play Serbia in their opening Group D game tomorrow.
“I can feel it in my heart. I’ve watched them play and I think they play very well and with a lot of determination” she said with a lot of passion in an interview with The Mirror.
The Black Stars have received a lot of flak about their performance and preparation towards the world cup, especially, after the Ghana and The Netherlands friendly match which Ghana lost 4-1.
But Gezelle said it was important that all Ghanaians supported the Black Stars through thick and thin.
Gezelle, who rode on US President Barrack Obama’s audacious phrase “Yes, we can” to win the Malaika crown, said that phrase is still as relevant as when it first spoken.
“It is sad that we only have confidence in the team when they win, but we have to support them whether good or bad. We have to cheer them on and also remember them in our prayers.
“ They had proven when hopes were down that yes they could, and I want to remain optmistic that they can do very well at this World Cup. Yes, they can!”
Gezelle who leaves Ghana for South Africa today to cheer the Black Stars said she was hopeful the Black Stars will thrash their Serbian counterparts by at least three goals to nil.
She said Dominic Adiyiah, Asamoah Gyan, Kwadwo Asamoah, Matthew Amoah and Prince Kelvin Boateng, whom she described as the new kid on the bloc, were her favourite Black Stars players.
She encouraged the Black Stars to play as a team , listen to the coach’s instructions and stay focused adding “ I believe in my heart they will make Ghana proud and make the nation stand out on the international map. Go Black Stars, Go!”
Eighteen-year-old Gezelle entered the Miss Malaika Ghana competition with an ambition. Then a graduate of Holy Child Senior High school, she described herself as confident and ambitious — traits that proved useful which won her the crown as Miss Malaika 2009 over 16 other contestants. 
Months down the line after winning the coveted crown, Gezelle, who aspires to be an International Journalist and a model, has been on the war path against malaria in Ghana — a responsibility that comes with winning the crown. 
Winning Miss Malaika has opened a lot of doors to greater heights for the ambitious young lady and she has not taken the responsibility lightly.
She began not long after her crowning by hosting a Christmas party for the pupils of the Dzorwulu Special School and immediately followed it up with painting the Princess Marie Louis Hospital (Children’s Hospital), donated artworks to the wards, painted the walls of the wards in cartoon characters to encourage them to heal quickly. 
It is interesting to note that, all this effort was before she took on full responsibility as the Malaria Youth Ambassador attached to the National Malaria Control Programme.
Gezelle also participated in the MTN 21 days of Yello’ Care for community enhancement project.
This community- based programme included distribution of mosquito nets, painting of selected hospitals, indoor residual spraying, tree-planting exercises and a malaria awareness talk in all the 10 regions.
Aside supporting the Black Stars,she took on other responsibilities such as the Malaria Youth Ambassador and a role as a Charity Icon for MTN. One will find a very active young woman who is constantly on the move to make her community a better place.