By Omotayo Edubi
The World Health Organization (WHO) has donated a set of medical equipment and devices to the Ghana Health Service to support the treatment of non-communicable diseases.
According to the WHO representative, Dr. Francis Chisaka Kasolo, who made the donation, over 200 million premature deaths are recorded globally as a result of non-communicable diseases such as cancers, heart diseases, chronic kidney diseases, among others. Hence, the contribution of the World Health Organisation to help reduce the impact of these diseases as well as help to detect them early.
“As a way of trying to slow down the burden of non-communicable diseases, we are working with the Ghana Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service.
“We reached out to the Norwegian government for support and then the government responded positively, for us to set up and support the non-communicable disease program within the Ghana Health Service. And today, we have come to donate 500 nanometers, which are used to measure blood pressure.
“We are also donating glucometers, which are used to measure sugar disease or diabetes. We are also donating height and weight monitoring equipment, as well as other related equipment. We hope that these particular materials will be saved to the lower part of the system. That’s the primary health care system where we think the need is the highest.”
He further stated that “In using this, we hope that Ghana will be able to monitor closely the evolution of the non-communicable diseases in the country.”
Receiving the donation on behalf of the Ghana Health Service, the Director-General, Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, indicated that non-communicable diseases are among the top ten causes of death in the country, so he is optimistic about the effectiveness of the equipment donated.
“Non-communicable disease is a major problem in this country. Currently, of the top 10 diseases cause of death in Ghana, four of them are all NCDs and so providing such support, Ghana is in a very unique position, where we have a mixture of communicable and non-communicable diseases,” he further added.
“Usually the transition is from communicable to non-communicable, but we are saddled with the two, and so we are very grateful for this support and that of the Norwegian government. WHO has been supportive, both technically and financially on several forms including NCD and we hope that this support and this collaboration will continue,” he said.