Defecating on refuse dumps worrying – Dr Sory
Dr Elias Sory, Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has expressed worry about the practices where people including adults defecate at refuse dumps thereby “promoting’ diseases.
He noted that it was not wise to defecate in open places and urged that people address problems of sanitation properly.
Dr Sory who was speaking at this year’s Child Health Promotion Week in Koforidua on Tuesday advocated for a national policy on plastic waste disposal.
He indicated that a lot of job openings could be created in the country if plastic waste could be re-cycled into other materials.
Dr Sory appealed to parents to ensure that they give their children nutritious meals to promote their good health.
He suggested that every school with pre-child education should be part of the School Feeding Programme to ensure that the young ones are fed on balanced diet each day.
Dr Kwasi Akyem Apea-Kubi, the Eastern Regional Minister, in a welcoming address noted that children were vulnerable to numerous physical, social and environmental factors which adversely affect their growth and development to become future productive workforce and leaders.
He said there were however proven cost-effective interventions that could prevent most of the diseases and health conditions that inflict and retard their normal growth and development.
Dr Apea-Kubi mentioned those interventions as exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months of life and growth monitoring of all children under- five years and education of care givers on appropriate infant and young child nutrition practices.
Others include immunization against the nine common causes of child morbidity and mortality; sleeping under insecticide treated nets, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV through focused antenatal care and early infant diagnosis, deworming and family planning and responsible parenting.
“Despite the existence of these effective interventions, the evidence is that the coverage is low and most communities have no access to these services for various reasons including lack of access, ignorance and poor quality of services among others”.
Dr Apea-Kubi said Government was aware of those deficiencies and would continue to pursue policies that would increase coverage.
He said the institutionalization of the Annual Child Health Promotion Week by the GHS and its Development Partners in May every year, was to create awareness about pertinent child health issues, mobilize communities and provide an integrated package of preventive services to children under-five years throughout the country.
Source: GNA