Hypertension and diabetes on the upsurge in Kumasi

Elias Sory, Director, Ghana Health Service (left), Mr. Yieleh Chireh, Minister for Health (right)

Statistics from Internal Medicine Specialists at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), show disturbing upsurge of cases of hypertension and diabetes in Kumasi and its environs.

KATH has been seeing 120 new cases of hypertension and 30 cases of diabetes every week.

Again, 25 per cent of deaths at the referral facility are attributed to the abnormally high blood pressure disease and its related infections.

These came to light at a two-day conference on the aforementioned diseases organized by the Directorate of Medicine, KATH, for more than 200 doctors, nurses and other health professionals drawn from across the country.

The goal was to help raise the needed awareness and map out strategies to tackle the growing health menace.

According to the health experts, the two had become a serious burden on the health care delivery system.

Prof. Jacob Plange-Rhule, a senior lecturer at the School of Medical Sciences, KNUST, presenting a paper on the hypertension situation, said 28.7 per cent of people in the Kumasi Metropolis and its outlying communities have the disease.

It is one of the leading causes of pre-mature deaths and disabilities and also account for 62 per cent of all stroke cases.

Prof. Plange-Rhule said there 'is a huge burden of hypertension in Ghana and there is the need to device innovative ways to control it'.

Dr. Agyenim Boateng of KATH Diabetic Clinic said diabetes was fast becoming the major cause of blindness in the country and contributing to lower limb amputations and kidney failures.

Currently, about 6.4 per cent of people in urban areas have the disease.

Dr. Aaron Offei, Ashanti Regional Director of Health Services, stressed the need for knowledge sharing and harmonization of activities among tertiary and other health institutions in the fight to bring down the two diseases. He commended KATH for the initiative and urged the participants to use the knowledge acquired to improve the management of these diseases.

Dr Baffour Awuah, Medical Director of KATH, underlined the importance of research to come out with innovative strategies for managing emerging diseases in the country.

He appealed to doctors and health officials to closely monitor the progress of treatment of their patients. Source: GNA