GRA Boss Unveiled As Brand Ambassador For Heart Diseases

The Commissioner-General of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Emmanuel Kofi Nti, has been unveiled as the 2018 brand ambassador to champion prevention of heart diseases and promote a healthy lifestyle among the Ghanaian populace.

His responsibility, as the brand ambassador, was to help raise awareness about heart diseases that are estimated to contribute 80 percent of premature deaths among Ghanaian citizens.

In a speech read on the Commissioner-General's behalf by his technical advisor, Christian Tetteh Sottie, at the launch of World Heart Day 2018, yesterday, in Accra, he expressed concerns about the growing menace of cardio diseases and called for stakeholders collaboration to help address the issue.

Speaking on the theme: “My heart, your heart, for all our hearts”, he urged Ghanaians to make exercise part of their lifestyle, eat healthy foods, stop smoking and drink responsibly.

To him, what Ghanaians need to adopt is an active lifestyle in order to reduce cardiovascular diseases burdens. The GRA has partnered the National Cardiovascular Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) since 2011.

Director of the National Cardiovascular Centre, Dr. Lawrence Serebour, on his part urged people not to be discouraged by the incident that led to the sudden demise of the former Vice President, Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur, who passed away while training.

According to him, what happened was a one off thing that should not deter people from engaging in an active lifestyle.

Dr. Serebour warned that factors such as aging, gender [men more at risk], poor diets, ethnicity, social factors, excessive drinking and economic status that should compel people to take exercising serious.

He said the theme chosen was to create a sense of commitment to protect hearts from being diseased, charging Ghanaians to be responsible towards their heart, adding “What can I do to look after your heart and my heart. Let us tell ourselves to do more exercise and eat healthy diets.”

To further address cardio diseases, he advised health professionals to do their bit to reduce the burden and save more lives whilst politicians should also create policies and implement plans on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

He advised the youth to stay aware from shisha smoking, as an hour spent smocking shisha is equivalent to 100 sticks of cigarettes. The heart surgeon added that shisha smoking is suicidal and people must refrain from its use.