A Non-Governmental organization (NGO) in Asamankese in the West Akyem Municipality of the Eastern Region, Facilitating Learning of Women in Emerging Regions (FLOWER) has appealed to the Government and Ghana Health Service to as a matter of urgency search for vaccines for Tuberculosis patients.
Chief Executive officer of the NGO, Attah Helen Modesta noted that currently there is only one vaccine available for TB patients and that vaccine was approved over 100 years ago.
Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is a vaccine for tuberculosis (TB) disease in most countries in the continent, but Madam Attah Helen Modesta said the Clock is ticking for Ghana and the entire world to search for another vaccine for TB.
Speaking on World Tuberculosis Day, observed on 24 March each year, the NGO CEO commended Government for making TB medicines free but was worried over the over 100-year-old vaccine and called on leaders in the continent to seek another vaccine as they worked hard for COVID -19 vaccines in less than a year of its spread.
World Tuberculosis Day is designed to build public awareness about the global epidemic of tuberculosis and efforts to eliminate the disease. In 2018, 10 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.5 million died from the disease, mostly in low and middle-income countries.
The theme of World Tuberculosis Day 2021 is ‘The Clock is ticking’. The theme has been chosen as it “conveys the sense that the world is running out of time to act on the commitments to end TB made by global leaders,” WHO said in its statement.
A disease control officer at the Asamankese Government Hospital in an interview called for an end of discrimination of TB patients and called for support for persons who are under medication.
She called on Ghanaians to support health officials to identify persons coughing for some weeks, suspected to be TB to seek free medical care to fight against TB in Ghana.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com
