Monday, 30th May, 2022

Page 8
Health
DAILY ANALYST Monday, 30th May, 2022
Fix healthcare system
to retain nurses in
Ghana – GRNMA
The Ghana Registered
Nurses and Midwives
Association (GRNMA)
has called on policymakers
in the healthcare
system to retool health
facilities across the country and
properly motivate its members to
stay and work in Ghana.
The Association noted that
some of the health facilities were
in deplorable states.
“Go into our health facilities
and you will see how appalling
they are, yet governments continue
to build health infrastructure,"
it noted.
The use of reusable pads
by females, especially
young girls during
menstruation, is
unhygienic and unsafe,
a health advocate has warned.
Mrs Mercy Acquah-
Hayford, National Coordinator
of International Network of
Religious Leaders Living with
or personally affected by HIV
and AIDS (INERELA+ Ghana),
who raised the concerns, noted
that reusable pads could cause
infections to the user.
She, therefore, cautioned
young girls against its usage.
She gave the cautioned in an
interview with the Ghana News
Agency, at a menstrual health
awareness programme held for
some school students of the John
Wesley Methodist School, in Accra.
Organised by INERELA+
Ghana, the programme sought to
educate children, especially young
girls on how to effectively manage
their menstrual life in a more
hygienic manner.
It was funded by the United
Nations Women Trust Fund,
and formed part of activities
to commemorate this year’s
Menstrual Hygiene Day.
Globally, 1.8 billion people
menstruate every month, the
United Nations International
Children’s Emergency Fund
(UNICEF) estimates.
Millions of girls, women,
transgender men and women and
non-binary persons are unable to
manage their menstrual cycle in a
dignified, health way, said UNICEF.
The situation has been
attributed to the inability of
these persons to acquire sanitary
products due to poverty, among
other things.
As a result, some health
persons and groups including
Non-Governmental Organisations
in health have, in recent times,
advocated the use of reusable pads
Mr. Samuel Alagkora Akolgo,
the First Vice President of
the GRNMA, made the call in an
interview with the Ghana News
Agency (GNA) on the side-line of
the Upper East Regional launch
of the International Nurses Day
celebration in Navrongo, in the
Kassena-Nankana Municipality.
The remarks were in response
to an appeal by Dr. Emmanuel Kofi
Dzotsi, the Regional Director of
the Ghana Health Service (GHS)
for nurses and midwives to stay,
and not leave the Region and
country.
Mr. Akolgo said even with the
Avoid reusable pads, they are
unsafe – Health advocate warns
due to their affordability.
Mrs Acquah-Hayford
noted that this defeated every
purpose of promoting a hygienic
menstrual life.
“I am not trying to spoil
somebody’s business but, we
were formally doing reusable, and
along the line, we realized that, as
a health personnel, people were
coming with infections and other
things so, we advocated for this
single use pads.
“Now, we are saying people
should use reusable? How do
they get portable water to wash
it, especially school children,
who are in school? Even in the
boarding schools, some schools
don’t have water, so, how is she
going to wash it?” She asked.
Mrs Acquah-Hayford added
that: “Again, seeing a lot of blood
on the pad, you said the person
should wash it. Is it not reintroducing
infections?
“So, we should go back to the
drawing board and sit down and
look at it. That’s my opinion.”
Mrs Acquah-Hayford, who
is a retired health officer, called
on health authorities to come
out with policies to ensure the
safety of young girls during their
menstrual periods.
existing infrastructure, the level
of maintenance, obsolete equipment,
and in some facilities, the
lack of basic equipment coupled
with poor conditions of service
frustrated and pushed members
of the Association to leave for
greener pastures.
“The equipment is not available,
but if patients come, they are
looking up to the nurse to help,
and without the logistics and
equipment to help the person, the
nurse will be frustrated.”
That, the Association’s First
Vice President, who is also the Upper
East Regional Chief Anaesthetist,
noted was one of the reasons
nurses and midwives would
request postings out of the Upper
East Region and the country.
“Already the conditions of
service the Association negotiated
“I don’t know if the Family
Health Unit knows this, but, if
they are aware, then, they have to
come out with policies that can
make people using it safe,” she
emphasised.
She appealed to government
to subsidise sanitary pads to make
it more affordable and promote
healthy menstrual hygiene.
“I think the cost of pads
should be reduced, so, Government
should step in and reduce the
prices. For me, pads should be
affordable for everyone to buy,”
said Mrs Acquah-Hayford.
Madam Paulina Essel,
a Counselor and a resource
person, advised the young girls
to prioritise their education to
ensure a better future.
She took the pupils through
the proper usage and disposal of
the sanitary pads.
INERELA+ Ghana presented
sanitary pads to all the girls and
teachers for keep in their first aid
boxes.
Introduced in 2014, the
Menstrual Hygiene Day is marked
on May 28, annually, to raise
awareness about the issues faced
by those who do not have access
to sanitary products.
for have not been implemented
and the constant excuse they give
is that there is no money, Health
Insurance hasn’t paid,” he added.
According to him, the quota
system for study leave for nurses
and midwives in the Region was
low, “We have engaged the Ghana
Health Service on the issue, and
we are hoping that what we will
table before them will be accepted”.
Mr. Akolgo expressed concern
about the number of nurses who
seek clearance from the Headquarters
of the GRNMA to leave
the country, saying; “Those who
seek to leave are the experienced
nurses and midwives we have in
the system”.
The Ghana Health
Service has launched an
Integrated Mass Drug
Administration (MDA)
Project for lymphatic
filariasis and Onchocerciasis to
help in the fight against neglected
tropical conditions.
The Integrated Mass Drug
Administration, to be carried out
nationwide, would begin from May
28 to June 12.
It will provide a single
dose medication to all eligible
individuals once or twice a year
and implemented over three
to seven years, to significantly
control the burden of such
conditions.
Dr Afez Adam Taher, the
Chairperson, Ghana Intra Country
Coordinating Committee for
Neglected Tropical Diseases
(NTDs), Ministry of Health, who
launched the project in Takoradi,
said human onchocerciasis – river
blindness was a disease of the skin
and eye caused by a parasitic worm
in fast-flowing rivers and streams.
As part of a process of
eliminating Onchocerciasis and
lymphatic filariasis by 2030, he
explained that this year’s Mass
Drug Administration targets 77
oncho-endemic districts to reach
out to about 12.6 million people.
It also envisions reaching
four lymphatic filariasis endemic
districts, targeting 440,000 people.
Dr Taher said the disease
was endemic in 31 countries
in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin
America and Yemen, adding that
Lymphatic filariasis, also known
as elephantiasis, is a neglected
tropical disease.
Infection occurs when filarial
parasites are transmitted to
humans through mosquitoes.
He explained that the infection
was usually acquired in childhood
causing hidden damage to the
lymphatic system and later years
causing elephantiasis and scrotal
swelling with mental, social and
He said even though the
Association needed its members
to stay in the country, deliver services
and strengthen the union,
“The welfare of our members
is also critical to us so if we are
suggesting to policymakers over
initiatives, we can use to keep our
nurses' home and they are not
implementing those suggestions,
well, the only thing is to sit down
and watch them leave”.
Mr. Akolgo emphasized that
equipped healthcare facilities,
well-arranged compensation, and
motivational packages would
enable nurses and midwives to
stay both in the Region and in the
country.
Mass drug administration
launched in Takoradi for
neglected tropical diseases
financial losses contributing to
stigma and poverty.
Dr Taher said since 2013, the
World Health Organisation (WHO)
had verified three countries in
Latin America as free of human
onchocerciasis but unfortunately,
Ghana was still endemic for the
disease, which was one of the 14
NTDs in the country.
Meanwhile, the World Health
Assembly Resolution 50.29
encouraged Member States to
eliminate lymphatic filariasis as a
public health problem.
In response, the WHO
launched its Global Programme
to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis
in 2000 with key components
including stopping the spread
of infection through large-scale
annual treatment of all eligible
people in an area where infection
is present; and alleviating the
suffering it caused through the
provision of the recommended
essential package of care.
“Preventing and controlling
NTDs is central to ending extreme
poverty in the next two decades.
Onchocerciasis/river blindness
and lymphatic filariasis, two of
the NTDs can be targeted through
a highly effective integrated
community treatment approach
using drugs that have been proven
safe and effective and which can
be delivered by trained non-health
personnel,” Dr Taher said.
He, therefore, encouraged
all eligible persons to avail
themselves for the immunisation
to fight against Onchocerciasis
and lymphatic filariasis,
describing the drug as safe.
Dr Joyce Aryee, the
Ambassador for such conditions,
said the drugs were not
deleterious but life saving and
efficacious to protect one against
the condition.
She called on the media to
educate the public on the process
for more people to participate in
the two-week exercise.