MOVES TO MANAGE CHILDHOOD DISEASES (PAGE 11)

A five-day trainer of trainers workshop on Community-Integrated Management of Childhood/Illnesses (C-IMCI) has opened at Fiapre, near Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.
Sixteen participants, including chiefs and stakeholders in the health sector are attending the workshop from the Asutifi and Tano North districts of the region on the theme, “Improving the Health of our Communities through Partnership”.
The programme focuses on the management of diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, micro- nutrient deficiency, measles and other diseases preventable through vaccination.
Topics to be discussed include exclusive breastfeeding, growth monitoring, infections, as well as personal hygiene and other practices important for child health and development.
The workshop is being organised by Newmont Ghana Gold Limited (NGGL) which is operating the Ahafo Mine, in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Department of Community Health of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.
Dr Emmanuel Tenkorang, the Deputy Regional Public Health Director pointed out that progress in child health in the region was very slow, stressing that annually the region recorded about 80 deaths per 1,000 live births.
“Statistics in the region are not good when it comes to child mortality,” he said, adding, “We need to drastically reduce child mortality by half before 2015 in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 which talks about reducing under-five mortality”.
To achieve that, Dr Tenkorang observed that there was the need for people in the various communities to contribute their quota, since health workers alone could not provide all the interventions.
Mr Joseph Danso, the Community Development Superintendent of the NGGL, in an address, indicated that the workshop was aimed at building the capacities of health personnel in the two districts in accordance with the company’s commitment to promote child health in the area it operated.
He announced that Newmont sponsored the training of 26 service providers to equip them with skills in the management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), while an additional 52 community-based volunteers were trained in STIs, including HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, last year.
Mr Danso indicated that during this year’s World Malaria Day celebration, the company launched a community malaria prevention programme for the Asutifi District, adding, “We have no doubt that the C-IMCI programme will go a long way to improve the health of children and even adults in the communities.”
The Head of the Department of Community Health of KNUST, Dr Easmon Otupiri, said the high levels of infant mortality in Central and Western Africa led to the initiation of the programme, which was designed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He said infant mortality rates needed to be reduced significantly to promote the attainment of the MDGs.