More than 1,000 teenage girls gave birth at Atwima-Nwabiagya in 2011

A total of 1,102 young girls aged between 15 and 19 years in the Atwima-Nwabiagya District gave birth last year 2011.

Three hundred and eight (308) of the deliveries were done through caesarean section.

Dr Samuel Osei Sowuah, the District Director of Ghana Health Service (GHS), addressing the annual review meeting of the health directorate, said of the number 68 still-births were recorded.

During the period, the Out-Patient Department (OPD) of the health facilities saw a sharp rise in the number of cases of hypertension and diabetes. The district recorded 16,492 cases of hypertension compared with the year 2010’s figure of 7,733, whilst diabetes stood at 2,778 as against 960 in the previous year.

Dr Sowuah told the meeting that malaria continued to top the list of 10 common diseases seen at the OPD, saying 158,170 cases were seen.

Coming next was acute respiratory infection, followed by diarrhoea.

The District Health Director identified heart failure, anaemia, alcoholism, pneumonia and severe malaria among the major causes of deaths in the area.

He complained about inadequate professional staff, particularly midwives and persistent delay in the payment of insurance claim and said these were affecting performance.

Key priorities of the Directorate during the year under review included promotion of regenerative health, quality customer care in the health facilities through staff training, adoption of strategies to cover the unreached and improved surveillance activities, especially at the community level.

Source: GNA