Don’t hide health conditions from family or coworkers — Dr. Karbo advises

Dr. Mrs. Barbara Ayesha Anawana Karbo, Head of the Accident and Emergency Department at the International Maritime Hospital (IMaH), has urged the people not to conceal their illnesses from their families, friends, and relatives, as doing so can save their lives during times of crisis.

She expressed concern that some people, particularly men, refuse to disclose their ailments and medication information to their families, spouses, and children, making it difficult for medical officials to provide accurate information in times of emergency.

Dr. Mrs. Karbo stated at the weekly "Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility," an initiative of the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office aimed at promoting health-related communication and providing a platform for health information dissemination in order to influence personal health choices through improved health literacy.

The Tema Regional Office of the Ghana News Agency created the public health advocacy platform "Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility" to research the aspects of four health communication approaches: informing, instructing, persuading, and urging.

Dr. Mrs. Karbo, an Accident and Emergency Specialist, gave a presentation on "First Aid at Home and Basic Life Support." She went on to say that when this happens, clinicians must rely on educated guesses rather than examining a specific scenario and providing timely treatment.

For example, she stated that asthmatic patients must inform their close friends, relatives, and colleagues where their inhalers are and what to do for them during an attack, and that a diabetic patient could be saved by a colleague who knew that anything containing sugar could be given to him when he showed signs of low sugar to save his life.

Dr. Mrs. Karbo also urged that patients teach everyone around them about their condition's safety mechanisms, explaining that if they were the only ones with the knowledge, it would be useless to them when they were in a position of aid and couldn't practice what they knew.

She also urged that all businesses and schools carry first aid boxes with the necessary items to provide first aid care before rushing to the hospital.

She stated that the first aid box should be given to a single individual to ensure accountability and upkeep of the supplies to ensure their use whenever needed.

She recommended that an office first aid kit include a glucometer, a thermometer, and diarrhea medicine, as well as anti-malaria medication, plaster, gauze, bandages, and some pain relievers, particularly paracetamol, and ibuprofen.

The glucometer would help diabetic workers, while the diarrhea would help prevent the loss of excess water from the body as the body turned to lose its water during such conditions, forcing it to take the water contained in the blood, which could lead to other emergencies, according to the Accident and Emergency Specialist.

Dr. Mrs. Karbo stated that first aid boxes for schools must also include suppository and syrup paracetamol, different types of thermometers, plaster, gauze, and bandages and that those in charge of the first aid box must be trained and given a chart, particularly on what to look for when checking the temperature of the children.

"GNA-Tema Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility" according to Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of Ghana News Agency, is a public health advocacy platform meant to investigate the four approaches of health communication: informing, teaching, persuading, and encouraging.

Mr Ameyibor stated that the GNA platform, through the weekly health dialogue forum, acts as a great communication channel for medical practitioners to educate the public about healthy practices and other general health concerns.

—CDA Consult II Contributor