Medical outreach screens 500 at Aflao

GNA – About 500 people from Aflao and it’s environs have benefited from a free medical outreach organised by the Aflao Traditional Area Development Organisation (ATADO), a Non- Governmental Organisation, at Avoeme in the Ketu South Municipality.

The programme was held in collaboration with the Ketu South Municipal Health Directorate, the Aflao Traditional Council, and the Aflao Council of Churches, with sponsorships from the Pharmacy Council of Ghana, and the East Cantonments Pharmacy.

Beneficiaries were screened for malaria, hypertension, and diabetes, and were offered free medication.

Madam Dzifa Gomashie, a former Deputy Minister for Tourism and founding member of ATADO, said the event was to promote good health, sanitation and community development in the area.

She said ATADO would continue to mobilise stakeholders to develop the border community and called on individuals from the area to join and support the Organisation.

She pleaded with the public to keep the lagoon clean and help prevent sanitation related health complications urging them to consider the Ramsar site a tourist attraction with enormous economic value.

Dr Julius Patamia of the Ketu South Municipal Hospital said malaria prevalence in the lagoon district was on the rise particularly among children, with some parasite counts as high as 120,000 per milligram of blood.

He said the stagnant and highly salted water being consumed by people in the area is affecting their health and appealed for potable water for communities.

Dr Patamia said health outreaches are of great benefit in an era of preventive medicine and that for a populated Municipality like Ketu South, more of such interventions must be considered.

Dovene, a fishmonger who came with her three children for screening, said she suffered chest pains since she conceived her last child and has been unable to undergo an X-ray scan due to financial constraints.

GNA