By Rebecca Kwei
It was a sunny Monday morning as I boarded a ‘trotro’, dreading the traffic and the more than one-hour journey to the office. Soon I was dozing off till someone yelled, “Praise the Lord” which jostled me out of my slumber.
“Not these ‘van preachers’ again” I murmured. Fortunately or unfortunately, he wasn’t a ‘van preacher’ but a drug peddler preceding his illegal business by invoking the forces of the Good Lord and pretending to be a preacher. Knowing the spate of road accidents in Ghana, this man was using the “fear factor” by praying for journey mercies for all the passengers and then quickly proceeding to his real aim — selling all sorts of medicines to unsuspecting citizens!
From deep within the bag he had strapped on his shoulder, he pulled out a drug claiming it could cure all manner of diseases — from diabetes to hypertension; erectile dysfunction to malaria; impotence to depression and childlessness to poverty, if one counted poverty as a disease. Of course most passengers patronised the ‘goody’, since he was offering two for the price of one. This was not the first time I had encountered a drug peddler — in fact they are everywhere in Africa — from those who carry the medicines on their heads and roam the streets to those who sell in mini vans.
Counterfeiting has been with us since the dawn of creation and appears in almost all cases to be motivated by the desire to make quick money. In the 1st Century AD, Dioscorides, a Greek Physician, warned of the dangers of adulterated drugs, an issue which still persists today and is a serious threat. Imagine you have malaria and you are taking artesunate-amodiaquine, the recommended first line treatment in Ghana, only to find out later that the medication had no effect. You surely will not get better and in the case of children or non-immune adults, this can easily lead to death from untreated malaria. Frightening! Isn’t it?
And yet this used to occur as late as the 17th Century when it was detected that the bark of the Peruvian Cinchona that is used to treat malaria was being adulterated with cheaper substances in order to increase profits. People did not get well and some died. The staggering size of the counterfeit pharmaceuticals market estimated to be about US$75 billion in 2010 alone shows this is serious business; even if it is deadly business too.
Each year counterfeit drugs are responsible for thousands of deaths worldwide. Some of these fake drugs contain nothing, some chalk in capsules, and some of them little or none at all of the active ingredients, and yet others contain dangerous additives including paints, industrial chemicals, banned substances and impure compounds.
The counterfeit issue was first discussed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1951 when the Director-General considered the advantages of more uniform methods for drug control. However, it was not till the 1985 Conference of Experts on the Rational Use of Drugs held in Nairobi Kenya that the current anti-counterfeiting initiatives gathered full steam.
Kofi’s story
Kofi (not his real name), had severe stomach pains accompanied by high temperature, sweating and diarrhoea. He visited the polyclinic and some medicines were prescribed, he purchased the drugs from the usual “drug seller”. After three days of taking the medicine, his situation got worse; the pain in the stomach became excruciating. The last thing he knew he was in hospital, where it was discovered he had been given fake ciprofloxacin, meaning the typhoid infection he was suspected to have, had not been treated leading to perforation of his intestines. He was the lucky one who got away, though he had to endure emergency surgery.
Fake Coartem in Ghana
In July 2009, the issue of fake/counterfeit medicines came up again in Ghana.
The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) warned the public of the sale of fake Coartem tablets in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. Coartem (artemether-lumefantrine) is one of the fastest selling antimalarial medicines in Ghana and at the time, one of the most expensive as well. Its effectiveness is such that patients accept the high price associated with it. The FDB confiscated 150 packs of the product from nine wholesale and retail pharmacies (note, not drug peddlers but pharmacies) involved in the distribution and sale.
The FDB said confirmatory tests on the fake products showed that the fake Coartem tablets did not contain any artemether-lumefantrine, the main active ingredients of the original Coartem tablet.
Ripple effects of counterfeit/substandard medicines
It has been estimated that up to 15 per cent of all sold drugs are fake, and in parts of Africa this figure exceeds 50 per cent.
Dr Patrick Lukulay, the Director of the United States Pharmacopoeia Drug Quality and Information Programme, says there is need for more public education on the effects of substandard and counterfeit medicines to the public.
“People should be made to understand that medicine quality is not a luxury but a matter of life and death,” he stressed.
Dr Lukulay described fake/counterfeit medicines as “deliberately mislabelled with respect to identity, amount and source” while substandard medicines refer to legally sold products which fall short of the expected and approved quality specifications”.
The ripple effects of counterfeit/substandard medicines are numerous: it is a threat to public health and economic development and a burden on national health care. Since patients end up not treated, their conditions do not go away and they may visit hospital again – a clear drain on national resources.
“People who take counterfeit drugs may have less of the active ingredient and could die because they are not receiving their life-saving treatment,” Dr Lukulay said.
It is estimated that about $12 billion is lost in wages due to counterfeit/substandard medicines, since failed treatment leads to more days out of work.
China, India, Nigeria — hub of fake medicines?
The Guardian (UK) in a story headlined “Health fears grow as fake drugs flood into Britain” in January 2010, said counterfeiting gangs based in China were producing sophisticated copies of the world’s bestselling pharmaceuticals.
The story said in 2008, an estimated eight million of these potentially deadly pills found their way to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS).
In 2007, Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of China’s Food and Drugs Administration who was found guilty of taking bribes to license fake drugs, was executed.
According to Internet reports, about 20 per cent of drugs sold in India are fake.
Figures released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development state that almost 75 per cent of fake drugs exported the world over accrue from India.
Dr Dorothy "Dora" Akunyili, the former head of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Nigeria, waged a relentless war against counterfeiters.
A survey conducted by the WHO found more than half the drugs on sale in Nigeria were fake or substandard.
"Counterfeit drugs are murder," says Dora. "It is the highest form of terrorism against public health because it kills a large number of people"
Despite an attempt on her life, Dr Akunyili continued to wage this war driven by memories of a personal tragedy. Her 21-year-old diabetic sister, Vivian, died in 1988 because of a fake insulin injection.
News report credits the effort of Dr Akunyili and NAFDAC, for the reduction in the level of fake drugs in Nigeria to 35 per cent down from about 70 per cent in 2001.
Winning the war against counterfeit/substandard drugs
The WHO notes that the increasing international trade of pharmaceuticals and sales via the internet has further facilitated the entry of counterfeit products into the supply chain.
In 2006 this led to WHO's launch of the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT) which has been the main conduit for WHO's work against counterfeits since.
In Ghana there are sentinel sites in Bolgatanga, Kumasi, Ho, Accra and Tarkwa for drug quality monitoring.
These sites could help in the identification of counterfeit medicines though all avenues for medicine supply and distribution are also avenues for the proliferation of counterfeit medicines.
Prof. Alex Dodoo, the President of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance and Director of the Centre for Tropical Pharmacology and Therapeutics of the University of Ghana Medical School, says counterfeiting has become increasingly sophisticated and requires a multi-sectoral approach involving academicians, policy makers and civil society.
“The fake Coartem story shows how legitimate pharmacies and chemical sellers’ shops could also be used to supply counterfeit medicines. Vigilance is, therefore, needed always and consumers should check and check again all products they purchase. If in doubt, report to the FDB or the law enforcement agencies,” Prof. Dodoo advises.
He insists that all countries should develop appropriate systems to enable them to quickly identify the supply route for all medicines, including unlicensed and fake products. This is the best way of protecting the public, who most often will not be able to tell the difference between a fake and a genuine product. Not everyone will be as lucky as Kofi.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Research funders urged to be committed to fair trade, not free trade
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 (Daily Graphic Pg 16)
By Rebecca Kwei
The Executive Director of INDEPTH Network, Accra, Dr Osman Sankoh, has called on research funders to be committed to ‘fair trade, not free trade’ with regard to sharing research data by putting in place mutually binding agreements and measures.
This was in response to a statement of purpose by several research funders on sharing research data to improve public health in an article published on July 30, 2011 in The Lancet, titled; “Sharing research data to improve public health: a perspective from the global south”.
He said although scientists were willing to share research data to improve public health, it must be done in a way such that researchers in resource-poor settings doing much of the work to generate data did not lose out to better-resourced researchers in the global North.
“We have to seek the balance between the rights and responsibilities of those who generate data and those who analyse and publish results using those data”, Dr Sankoh said.
Dr Sankoh made the call at a two-day seminar on “Ethics of Sharing Public Health Research Data: Perspectives from Low- and Middle-Income Countries” in Nairobi, Kenya from July 28-29, 2011.
The seminar, which was organised by INDEPTH Network and the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED) and hosted by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), was to among others, seek solutions on ethics, technical, process, and capacity strengthening issues of sharing public health research data.
More than 30 researchers, demographers and scientists from various INDEPTH member health research centres in Africa and Asia participated in the seminar.
Dr Sankoh said it was welcoming news that after a series of meetings from 2008, 17 health research funders had come up with a joint statement to support public health research scientists to share data in ways that were equitable, ethical and efficient.
He said sharing data had many benefits such as potential to guide policy makers to make informed decisions to improve public health.
What was important, he said, was for scientists in the South to strengthen their capacity so that they would not only generate data but be able to analyse and publish results from those data.
He emphasised that data sharing was not new to Indepth Network, since its various sites had been sharing data with a cross-section of organisations and students.
For his part, Carel IJsselmuiden, the Director of COHRED, said reasons researchers gave for not sharing data was that it would affect patient confidentiality, compiling a data set for sharing was too much work and data might be analysed using invalid methods.
However, he noted that misuse of data was one of the downsides of sharing, but it was a price worth paying.
“If we give priority to the interests of the research subject then answering the question of how widely their data should be shared is easy. Patients volunteer for research because they want to benefit others. It is in their interests for the usefulness of their
contribution to be maximised. Data sharing, rather than data hoarding, achieves this goal,” Dr IJsselmuiden said.
He said key obstacles identified for not sharing data were ‘technical’and personal which could be overcome by filling the gaps in data management, increase incentives to share data and establish data libraries.
A Policy Advisor at the Wellcome Trust, Dave Carr said his organisation was dedicated to ensuring that research outputs were preserved and shared to maximise their long-term value.
He said the trust was committed to supporting high quality health research that was timely and widely used; transparent and available to others and quickly translated into better policies and better health.
However, he said the current situation for public health research was that data analysis and reporting were slow and incomplete and also the lack of access to data limits the capacity for comparative analysis or even checking for accuracy.
Therefore, Mr Carr said it was important to have an ethical balance that will among others ensure the confidentiality of participants in a research, prevent stigmatisation of small communities and better investments in health.
By Rebecca Kwei
The Executive Director of INDEPTH Network, Accra, Dr Osman Sankoh, has called on research funders to be committed to ‘fair trade, not free trade’ with regard to sharing research data by putting in place mutually binding agreements and measures.
This was in response to a statement of purpose by several research funders on sharing research data to improve public health in an article published on July 30, 2011 in The Lancet, titled; “Sharing research data to improve public health: a perspective from the global south”.
He said although scientists were willing to share research data to improve public health, it must be done in a way such that researchers in resource-poor settings doing much of the work to generate data did not lose out to better-resourced researchers in the global North.
“We have to seek the balance between the rights and responsibilities of those who generate data and those who analyse and publish results using those data”, Dr Sankoh said.
Dr Sankoh made the call at a two-day seminar on “Ethics of Sharing Public Health Research Data: Perspectives from Low- and Middle-Income Countries” in Nairobi, Kenya from July 28-29, 2011.
The seminar, which was organised by INDEPTH Network and the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED) and hosted by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), was to among others, seek solutions on ethics, technical, process, and capacity strengthening issues of sharing public health research data.
More than 30 researchers, demographers and scientists from various INDEPTH member health research centres in Africa and Asia participated in the seminar.
Dr Sankoh said it was welcoming news that after a series of meetings from 2008, 17 health research funders had come up with a joint statement to support public health research scientists to share data in ways that were equitable, ethical and efficient.
He said sharing data had many benefits such as potential to guide policy makers to make informed decisions to improve public health.
What was important, he said, was for scientists in the South to strengthen their capacity so that they would not only generate data but be able to analyse and publish results from those data.
He emphasised that data sharing was not new to Indepth Network, since its various sites had been sharing data with a cross-section of organisations and students.
For his part, Carel IJsselmuiden, the Director of COHRED, said reasons researchers gave for not sharing data was that it would affect patient confidentiality, compiling a data set for sharing was too much work and data might be analysed using invalid methods.
However, he noted that misuse of data was one of the downsides of sharing, but it was a price worth paying.
“If we give priority to the interests of the research subject then answering the question of how widely their data should be shared is easy. Patients volunteer for research because they want to benefit others. It is in their interests for the usefulness of their
contribution to be maximised. Data sharing, rather than data hoarding, achieves this goal,” Dr IJsselmuiden said.
He said key obstacles identified for not sharing data were ‘technical’and personal which could be overcome by filling the gaps in data management, increase incentives to share data and establish data libraries.
A Policy Advisor at the Wellcome Trust, Dave Carr said his organisation was dedicated to ensuring that research outputs were preserved and shared to maximise their long-term value.
He said the trust was committed to supporting high quality health research that was timely and widely used; transparent and available to others and quickly translated into better policies and better health.
However, he said the current situation for public health research was that data analysis and reporting were slow and incomplete and also the lack of access to data limits the capacity for comparative analysis or even checking for accuracy.
Therefore, Mr Carr said it was important to have an ethical balance that will among others ensure the confidentiality of participants in a research, prevent stigmatisation of small communities and better investments in health.
Donate blood to prevent maternal deaths
Saturday, July 16, 2011 (The Mirror Pg 3)
By Rebecca Kwei
The Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in collaboration with the USAID Behaviour Change Support Project has embarked on a campaign to get more community blood donors to donate blood on periodic basis to stock the blood banks.
This is to among others prevent maternal deaths through profuse bleeding.
Acute blood loss in women during childbirth as a result of bleeding can lead to death since the blood volume is drastically reduced and oxygen supply to vital organs is severely compromised.
According to the service women bore the brunt of blood shortage at the blood banks because of bleeding during and after childbirth.
It said bleeding after birth was common in Ghana and that had accounted for so many deaths in health care facilities and the campaign was to create awareness on the problems of bleeding during pregnancy and childbirth as a major cause of maternal mortality and how to address it.
Maternal death is the death of any woman that occurs during pregnancy, labour and within six weeks after birth due to preventable factors. Maternal death remains the best indicator for the quality of women’s health care world-wide.
The Ghana Maternal Health Survey in 2007 indicated that maternal mortality ratio in Ghana was 451 deaths out of 100,000 babies born alive.
In 2008 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital alone, out of the 10,312 pregnant women who reported, 69 of them died from problems related to child birth.
A total of 905 maternal deaths were recorded in health facilities throughout the country in 2009 and excessive bleeding was known to contribute about a quarter of all these deaths.
The directorate said there were many causes of bleeding but some life saving measures could be used to manage the situation and in the case of excessive bleeding, blood transfusion may be required.
On the role of the National Blood Transfusion Service in preventing maternal deaths, it said the service also created awareness on the need to donate blood voluntarily so that safe blood will always be available as of the time it was needed.
Unfortunately, the blood bank does not always have enough blood to be given to these women and the blood transfusion service is also appealing to all Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of donating blood voluntarily to stock the blood banks.
Males and females between the ages of 17 to 60 who weigh 50 kilograms and above can conveniently donate blood.
The service said blood donation was very simple and safe and could take about five to seven minutes after which the donor is made to rest for 10 minutes and then refreshed.
By Rebecca Kwei
The Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in collaboration with the USAID Behaviour Change Support Project has embarked on a campaign to get more community blood donors to donate blood on periodic basis to stock the blood banks.
This is to among others prevent maternal deaths through profuse bleeding.
Acute blood loss in women during childbirth as a result of bleeding can lead to death since the blood volume is drastically reduced and oxygen supply to vital organs is severely compromised.
According to the service women bore the brunt of blood shortage at the blood banks because of bleeding during and after childbirth.
It said bleeding after birth was common in Ghana and that had accounted for so many deaths in health care facilities and the campaign was to create awareness on the problems of bleeding during pregnancy and childbirth as a major cause of maternal mortality and how to address it.
Maternal death is the death of any woman that occurs during pregnancy, labour and within six weeks after birth due to preventable factors. Maternal death remains the best indicator for the quality of women’s health care world-wide.
The Ghana Maternal Health Survey in 2007 indicated that maternal mortality ratio in Ghana was 451 deaths out of 100,000 babies born alive.
In 2008 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital alone, out of the 10,312 pregnant women who reported, 69 of them died from problems related to child birth.
A total of 905 maternal deaths were recorded in health facilities throughout the country in 2009 and excessive bleeding was known to contribute about a quarter of all these deaths.
The directorate said there were many causes of bleeding but some life saving measures could be used to manage the situation and in the case of excessive bleeding, blood transfusion may be required.
On the role of the National Blood Transfusion Service in preventing maternal deaths, it said the service also created awareness on the need to donate blood voluntarily so that safe blood will always be available as of the time it was needed.
Unfortunately, the blood bank does not always have enough blood to be given to these women and the blood transfusion service is also appealing to all Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of donating blood voluntarily to stock the blood banks.
Males and females between the ages of 17 to 60 who weigh 50 kilograms and above can conveniently donate blood.
The service said blood donation was very simple and safe and could take about five to seven minutes after which the donor is made to rest for 10 minutes and then refreshed.
13 Children missing at Dansoman
Saturday, July 2, 2011 (The Mirror Pg 21)
By Rebecca Kwei
Thirteen children between the ages of two and five living at Dansoman, a suburb of Accra, were reported missing during the first quarter of this year.
This is a sharp rise from 15 children that were reported missing from the same area for the whole of 2010 according to records at the Accra Regional Police. Within the same period too, there there was one missing child each in Tudu, Taifa and Chorkor, all suburbs of Accra.
According to ASP Cyprian Zenge of the Public Affairs Unit, five out of the 13 missing children have been found and reunited with their parents.
However, he said, those five were the ones reported to the police and there were cases where the found children were not reported.
ASP Zenge said the trend, especially around Dansoman and its environs was worrying and appealed to parents to take good care of their children and be vigilant.
He said the cases could be attributed to negligence on the part of parents who sometimes failed to pick them from school or fail to leave them in the care of someone they trust when they are leaving for work.
He said parents should ensure that they leave their children in the care of trustworthy people when they cannot take them along to wherever they are going.
“It is a crime for parents to neglect their responsibility to protect and keep safe any child whether biological or not under their care” ASP Zenge said.
He said the police was conducting a lot of education and awareness programmes on safety and security for communities but added that the primarily responsibility lied with the individual to be cautious and vigilant.
The June 18, 2011 issue of The Mirror reported that between February, 2010 and June, this year, the Social Welfare Office at the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service, (DOVVSU) in Accra, had received 172 cases of missing children, and more cases are being recorded daily.
Giving a break-down of the cases, the Head of the Social Welfare Office, Mr Dela Ashiagbor, said from February to December, 2010, 120 missing children were brought from various parts of the city to the unit, out of which 50 had so far been released to their families.
From January to June 14, this year, there were 52 cases out of which 14 had been reunited with their relatives.
Campaign on safe delivery begins
Saturday, June 25, 2011 (The Mirror Pg 13)
By Rebecca Kwei
THE Ghana Health Service (GHS), in collaboration with the USAID Behaviour Change Support (BCS) project, has started a campaign to educate the Ghanaian public, especially women, on birth and emergency preparedness.
This is to ensure that women have healthy pregnancies and safe delivery.
The Ghana 2007 Maternal Health Survey revealed that about 451 women per 100,000 live births died in the country due to pregnancy, unsafe abortion or complications of labour (GSS 2007).
Statistics show 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.
As part of the project, the Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the GHS has embarked on series of educational programmes to reach out to as many women as possible for them to understand the issues of maternal health and safe motherhood.
Maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, labour and after birth. Pregnancy and childbirth have an enormous impact on the physical, mental, emotional and socio-economic well-being of women and their families.
A release from the Greater Accra Health Directorate identified the main causes of maternal death as delays in recognising danger signs in pregnancy, labour and after birth; delays in making decisions to seek care; delays in reaching health facility; and delays in receiving care.
The release said one of the things that women should do to stay healthy during pregnancy, labour and after birth so that they did not lose their lives was to attend ante-natal care early and visit the clinic as soon as they realised that they were pregnant.
That is to ensure that both baby and mother are well and also to detect and treat any problems early before they become serious.
Pregnant women should eat energy-giving foods such as maize, oil, rice, cassava and yam; and body building foods such as fish, meat, eggs and beans.
For protection against diseases, such women should consume enough fruits and vegetables, which include banana, pawpaw, mango, pineapple, okra, garden eggs and tomatoes.
There is also the need for expectant mothers to take the prescribed iron and folic acids until six weeks after the baby is born. These are blood-forming tablets and will help make the blood richer, make the woman stronger and healthier and make her sleep better. They also make the foetus grow well.
To avoid catching malaria during pregnancy, all pregnant women should take the malaria-preventing drug that will be given to them by health centres as soon as they feel the movement of the foetus. There is the need for women who take the malaria tablets to report to their health centres if they experience fever after taking them.
Another intervention which is important for pregnant women is tetanus injection, this is given once or twice to protect the mother and the baby from getting tetanus.
To have safe pregnancy and delivery, a pregnant woman should report to a health facility immediately she experiences severe headache, blurred vision and excessive vomiting, and finds that the inside of their eyelids are pale.
During labour, some of the danger signs which women should not ignore include vaginal bleeding before the baby is born; green, brownish or foul smelling fluid from the vagina, persistent and severe abnormal pain which is tender to touch; no movement of the foetus; fever; baby not born within 24 hours of being in labour; convulsions, which are signs of pregnancy-induced hypertension and the loss of consciousness.
The statement mentioned some of the danger signs a woman could experience after birth to include retained placenta and womb infection which could manifest as fever and chills; abdominal pains and tenderness; and also badly smelling discharge from the vagina.
It said women could help themselves and their unborn babies if they avoided drinking alcohol during pregnancy, stopped smoking or chewing tobacco or not expose themselves to poison as these could make the baby abnormal or underweight.
They are also to sleep under insecticide treated nets (ITN) to prevent mosquito bites, have enough rest and also do daily exercises such as walking to strengthen their muscles.
By Rebecca Kwei
THE Ghana Health Service (GHS), in collaboration with the USAID Behaviour Change Support (BCS) project, has started a campaign to educate the Ghanaian public, especially women, on birth and emergency preparedness.
This is to ensure that women have healthy pregnancies and safe delivery.
The Ghana 2007 Maternal Health Survey revealed that about 451 women per 100,000 live births died in the country due to pregnancy, unsafe abortion or complications of labour (GSS 2007).
Statistics show 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.
As part of the project, the Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the GHS has embarked on series of educational programmes to reach out to as many women as possible for them to understand the issues of maternal health and safe motherhood.
Maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, labour and after birth. Pregnancy and childbirth have an enormous impact on the physical, mental, emotional and socio-economic well-being of women and their families.
A release from the Greater Accra Health Directorate identified the main causes of maternal death as delays in recognising danger signs in pregnancy, labour and after birth; delays in making decisions to seek care; delays in reaching health facility; and delays in receiving care.
The release said one of the things that women should do to stay healthy during pregnancy, labour and after birth so that they did not lose their lives was to attend ante-natal care early and visit the clinic as soon as they realised that they were pregnant.
That is to ensure that both baby and mother are well and also to detect and treat any problems early before they become serious.
Pregnant women should eat energy-giving foods such as maize, oil, rice, cassava and yam; and body building foods such as fish, meat, eggs and beans.
For protection against diseases, such women should consume enough fruits and vegetables, which include banana, pawpaw, mango, pineapple, okra, garden eggs and tomatoes.
There is also the need for expectant mothers to take the prescribed iron and folic acids until six weeks after the baby is born. These are blood-forming tablets and will help make the blood richer, make the woman stronger and healthier and make her sleep better. They also make the foetus grow well.
To avoid catching malaria during pregnancy, all pregnant women should take the malaria-preventing drug that will be given to them by health centres as soon as they feel the movement of the foetus. There is the need for women who take the malaria tablets to report to their health centres if they experience fever after taking them.
Another intervention which is important for pregnant women is tetanus injection, this is given once or twice to protect the mother and the baby from getting tetanus.
To have safe pregnancy and delivery, a pregnant woman should report to a health facility immediately she experiences severe headache, blurred vision and excessive vomiting, and finds that the inside of their eyelids are pale.
During labour, some of the danger signs which women should not ignore include vaginal bleeding before the baby is born; green, brownish or foul smelling fluid from the vagina, persistent and severe abnormal pain which is tender to touch; no movement of the foetus; fever; baby not born within 24 hours of being in labour; convulsions, which are signs of pregnancy-induced hypertension and the loss of consciousness.
The statement mentioned some of the danger signs a woman could experience after birth to include retained placenta and womb infection which could manifest as fever and chills; abdominal pains and tenderness; and also badly smelling discharge from the vagina.
It said women could help themselves and their unborn babies if they avoided drinking alcohol during pregnancy, stopped smoking or chewing tobacco or not expose themselves to poison as these could make the baby abnormal or underweight.
They are also to sleep under insecticide treated nets (ITN) to prevent mosquito bites, have enough rest and also do daily exercises such as walking to strengthen their muscles.
Nana Boroo is Malaria Ambassador
Saturday, June 16, 2011 (The Mirror Pg 19)
By Rebecca Kwei
Hiplife musician, Nana Boroo (Nana Osei Bonsu), has urged every Ghanaian to sleep under insecticide treated nets to prevent malaria.
He said prevention was better than cure and sleeping under treated nets was a sure way to prevent malaria which was a major cause of death, especially in children and pregnant women in sub Saharan African.
Nana Boroo made the call when he was unveiled as the Malaria Ambassador at a short ceremony held at the Citizen Kofi Entertainment Centre in Accra.
Music easily carries messages across and using it as a behaviour change communication component has worked well over the years.
Thus, Nana Borro was chosen to use the medium of music to encourage people to sleep under treated nets.
The project dubbed ‘Aha yede’ — Always sleep under a treated net’- has been put together by the USAID, Promoting Malaria Prevention and Treatment (ProMPT), the Ghana Health Service and the National Malaria Control Programme.
His hit track ‘Aha yede’ has been remixed as ‘Aha yede-ntom tom be wu’ as the theme song.
Part of the lyrics of the song in English and Akan which says “Let’s come together and drive malaria away- Sleep under treated net every day” talks about the benefits of sleeping under treated nets in an interesting way.
Insecticide Treated Nets have been known to reduce mortality in children under five by about 20 per cent and malarial illnesses among children under five and pregnant women by up to 50 per cent.
A survey showed that almost every household in Ghana had an ITN but “sleeping in the ITN” was the problem.
Therefore, as the Malaria Ambassador, Nana Boroo said he would create more awareness and also intensify education to encourage Ghanaians to sleep in treated nets to prevent malaria.
“The mosquito doesn’t care where you sleep, who you sleep with or what you do when you sleep. The best way to prevent the mosquito bite which results in malaria is to sleep under the treated net,” Nana Boroo emphasised.
Recently at the launch of six different reports published by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership highlighting the progress and impact made in the fight against malaria, it came to light that in the past 10 years 736,700 children in 34 African countries had been saved from malaria through the use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), indoor residual spraying (IRS), effective medicines and preventive treatment during pregnancy.
Within the same period, household distribution and ownership of ITNs increased significantly in sub-Saharan Africa from three per cent in 2000 to 42 per cent in 2010.
The Coordinators of the project, Ian Tweedie and Maurice Oquaye, who engaged guests at the event in a pop quiz, said one person died from malaria in Ghana every three hours.
They said severe malaria was also a major cause of permanent brain damage and physical disability.
Treated nets which has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) give double protection by preventing the mosquito from landing on you and the insecticide in it repels or kills the mosquito when they land on the net.
By Rebecca Kwei
Hiplife musician, Nana Boroo (Nana Osei Bonsu), has urged every Ghanaian to sleep under insecticide treated nets to prevent malaria.
He said prevention was better than cure and sleeping under treated nets was a sure way to prevent malaria which was a major cause of death, especially in children and pregnant women in sub Saharan African.
Nana Boroo made the call when he was unveiled as the Malaria Ambassador at a short ceremony held at the Citizen Kofi Entertainment Centre in Accra.
Music easily carries messages across and using it as a behaviour change communication component has worked well over the years.
Thus, Nana Borro was chosen to use the medium of music to encourage people to sleep under treated nets.
The project dubbed ‘Aha yede’ — Always sleep under a treated net’- has been put together by the USAID, Promoting Malaria Prevention and Treatment (ProMPT), the Ghana Health Service and the National Malaria Control Programme.
His hit track ‘Aha yede’ has been remixed as ‘Aha yede-ntom tom be wu’ as the theme song.
Part of the lyrics of the song in English and Akan which says “Let’s come together and drive malaria away- Sleep under treated net every day” talks about the benefits of sleeping under treated nets in an interesting way.
Insecticide Treated Nets have been known to reduce mortality in children under five by about 20 per cent and malarial illnesses among children under five and pregnant women by up to 50 per cent.
A survey showed that almost every household in Ghana had an ITN but “sleeping in the ITN” was the problem.
Therefore, as the Malaria Ambassador, Nana Boroo said he would create more awareness and also intensify education to encourage Ghanaians to sleep in treated nets to prevent malaria.
“The mosquito doesn’t care where you sleep, who you sleep with or what you do when you sleep. The best way to prevent the mosquito bite which results in malaria is to sleep under the treated net,” Nana Boroo emphasised.
Recently at the launch of six different reports published by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership highlighting the progress and impact made in the fight against malaria, it came to light that in the past 10 years 736,700 children in 34 African countries had been saved from malaria through the use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), indoor residual spraying (IRS), effective medicines and preventive treatment during pregnancy.
Within the same period, household distribution and ownership of ITNs increased significantly in sub-Saharan Africa from three per cent in 2000 to 42 per cent in 2010.
The Coordinators of the project, Ian Tweedie and Maurice Oquaye, who engaged guests at the event in a pop quiz, said one person died from malaria in Ghana every three hours.
They said severe malaria was also a major cause of permanent brain damage and physical disability.
Treated nets which has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) give double protection by preventing the mosquito from landing on you and the insecticide in it repels or kills the mosquito when they land on the net.
Omar Captan: Powered by looks and ability
By Rebecca Kwei
He is suave and exudes an aura that easily draws him to others.
There’s little doubt that actor, Omar Shariff Captan’s good looks and acting abilities are the elements that have kept him in the movie business for the past 22 years.
For someone who studied electrical engineering at the Accra Technical Training Centre, little did he know that he would one day be tagged as an international actor.
His ‘accidental landing’ in the industry came about while he was working as a Production Assistant on the movie, ‘Diabolo’.
“It was the late Fred Addy who saw me work as a production assistant and encouraged me to go into acting because he felt I could do well in that field,” Omar recalled.
“I took his advice and even started to believe in myself because I had performed on stage during my time at Snaps and Benkum Secondary schools,” he added.
A year later, in 1990, Omar had his debut in ‘Outrage’ where he starred alongside more experienced screen personalities like Mac Jordan Amartey, Eunice Banini and Super OD.
He then had another role in ‘My Sweetie’ the following year and other movies he could not immediately recall.
Omar’s major break came in 1996 when he played the lead role as a drug baron in ‘Dark Sands’.
He played his part well and offers to star in other movies started to pour in. He has been in some Ghana-Nigeria collaborations and in hit soaps operas like ‘Tentacles’ and ‘Broadway.’
Omar says he has now lost count of the number of movies he has starred in, mostly as a lover boy or a bad guy over the last 22 years.
Omar’s other big break materialised in 2007 when he became part of the cast of M-net’s still-running popular soap opera, ‘Tinsel.’
Shot in Nigeria, ‘Tinsel’ is packed with drama, passion, secrets and betrayal and is set against the background of a Lagos-based film studio in which romance, ambition and family feuds turn the boardroom into a battleground, and life into a rollercoaster of emotions and adventure.
Omar plays the role of Reginald Okoh, a smooth-talking workaholic who finds himself caught up in a love triangle.
“Being part of ‘Tinsel’ has been amazing. I have learnt a lot of things from how to go about shooting in a studio to improving my acting skills,” he said.
Omar’s view is that the movie business in Ghana has seen tremendous improvement but he was not happy about the fact that old actors were not being featured in movies even when their inputs were needed.
“Why must you paint the beard of a young man white just to portray him as an old man when there are old actors who can play that role?” he queried.
“The Harrison Fords, Sean Connerys and Michael Douglases are still acting. Even in neighbouring Nigeria, you still have old actors in active roles. Why not Ghana?”
Another challenge with the movie business, according to Omar, has to do with executive producers whom he described as businessmen and not producers.
He explained that because the executive producers are businessmen, their desire is often to make quick profit out of what they had invested. This sometimes leads to the influx of low-quality movies on the market.
Aside acting, Omar has learnt on the job to be a cameraman, sound technician and editor.
In between his acting career, he has also worked with various corporate organisations such as Mitsubishi, Corporate Guardian and AFGO.
He currently manages D’Imago, an advertising, film production and event management firm.
He does not see himself retiring from the movie business soon since he aspires to be an executive producer as well as a director in the near future.
Born in Accra to Samir Captan, the current Chairman of the Ghana Boxing Association and Naomi Awuku, Omar has two daughters: Paula, 10 and Doreen, 7.
On his relationship status, Omar says “I dey” with a coy smile.
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