Asthma needs serious attention in Ghana

Bernard Appiah, Ghana
(First published in Joy Online, Ghana on 17th May 2013): Many adults in Ghana with asthma—a disease that causes swelling of the airways of the lungs and thus make the airways become narrow—usually know very well such symptoms as wheezing, chest tightness, and coughing. But researchers trying to establish the factors that influence asthma in Ghana, especially in adults, have very little information on the disease. Most studies have focused on asthma among individuals aged 5 to 16 years and therefore very little information on risk factors associated with asthma among adults in Ghana is known, says Abena S. Amoah, principal Research Assistant at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, and colleagues in a research to identify studies on asthma in Ghana.

More action needed to tackle multi-drug resistant TB in Ghana

Bernard Appiah, Ghana 
(First published in Joy Online, Ghana on 24th March 2013): What appeared to be a routine visit to the hospital in late February 2013 to seek medical treatment for persistent cough with blood turned out to be different for sixty-eight-year old Maame Akua (not the real name). “I was just sick and went to the hospital only to be told later after some tests that I have tuberculosis (TB),” says Akua. “Since then I have been going to the hospital daily to take medications there every morning, and I’ve been advised to do so continuously for two months before I can take other TB medicines at home for four months.”

Women need protection from indoor air pollution

Bernard Appiah, Ghana
A rat burrows into a small bushy hill, and makes the hole its abode, supplying food and leafy "clothing" into it. Men or boys, dressed in sweat-drenched shirts bent on having bush meat put fire materials like dry leaves in front of the hole, light a match, resulting in fire and smoke. Then they begin to fan the smoke directly into the hole resulting in the sound "pupupupupupu" while hunting dogs and other interested men anxiously look on. Roughly 10 to 20 minutes later, the smoke forces the unfortunate rat to jump out of its abode into the paths of its enemies who chase it and literally arrest it.