The incidence of Tuberculosis in Ghana is discouraging as the public still attribute the airborne disease and HIV and AIDS to superstition.
At a TB screening exercise for residents of the Weija Gbawe Municipality, the Chief Executive Officer of Integrated Development in Focus, an NGO into TB and other capacity-building programmes, Josephine Agbo Nettey said the superstitious beliefs are as a result of low level of awareness creation.
She urged the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to intensify its sensitization programmes on TB and other related diseases.
Out of five hundred cases of suspected TB in the Weija Gbawe Municipality, only about a hundred reported for treatment.
This poor performance is said to be the result of low level of awareness creation to demystify both TB and HIV and AIDS leading to low turn out at health screening centres to determine their status.
Despite available interventions initiated by the WHO and some countries, including Ghana, the disease remains a key public health problem.
The Executive Director of Integrated Development in Focus, Mrs Josephine Agbo Nettey who is also a Public Health expert said a major hindrance to the fight of the diseases is demystifying the causes through continuous sensitisation.
She said the National Commission for Civic Education must sit up.
The Weija Gbawe Municipal Tuberculosis Coordinator, Frank said the Municipal Health Directorate is adopting new strategies to draw residents attention to the diseases’.
Some residents who were screened encouraged others to get screened.
The Integrated Development in Focus an NGO organised the screening for not for only TB and AIDS but also for High Blood Pressure and Nutritional Status.
This was done in collaboration with the Weija Gbawe Municipality Health Directorate.
The NGO has been vibrant in the fight against TB and HIV and AIDS and carries out community sensitisation programmes.
