The Executive Director of Healthy Ghana, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, has expressed regret that some Ghanaians still held the belief that superstition, instead of germs and said this was one of the major drawbacks of the health care system in Ghana
This, he said is worrying because even the highly educated hold firmly to this belief and resort to prayer camps instead of hospitals until the situation became worse.
Prof. Akosa was speaking on “Communication, Culture and Health” at the third day of the first University of Cape Coast (UCC) Faculty of Arts Colloquium in Cape Coast with the aim of providing a platform for researchers in the humanities at UCC and other avenues to disseminate research findings on selected themes in order to inform policy briefs of the University and the nation.
Participants, drawn from various health, culture and communication disciplines including staff and students of the Faculty of Arts are being taken through three plenary presentations, forty-eight scientific research reports, a seminar as well as a round table discussion.
Prof. Akosa expressed concern that the poor and aged were invariably accused of using witchcraft to cause diseases and other predicaments, adding that many lives which had been lost to convulsion and other health conditions could have been saved if the superstition factor had been eliminated.
He said even though prayer camps continuously abused people’s trust, patrons would always choose the camps over hospitals and warned leaders of such camps to be careful with their activities since they could be legally held responsible for the death of the sick persons under their care.
He condemned the belief that the human urine could cure diseases and urged the general public to be wary of the kind of medical advice they adhere to.
Prof Akosa, who is a pathologist, said the superstition factor had led to the lack of trust in pathologists since most people thought it was unnecessary or held strongly to the belief that some people especially traditional leaders were not supposed to be operated even in their demise.
He noted that some Ghanaians, even the well-educated did not possess the habit of reading about their health conditions either on line or in magazines and therefore encouraged them to read more about health especially the labels and briefs that come with drugs.
On herbal medicine, Prof. Akosa said the mystic power of herbal medicine had eluded the herbalists’ ability to identify the active ingredients in the herbs and had therefore set the stage for criticism of herbal medicine’s ability to cure more than one disease.
According to him, the spirituality concept attached to the use of traditional medical had made most people to rather shy away in preference to western medicines, adding that if herbalists were well trained to identify active component in herbs herbal medicine would be of great importance to healthcare.
He cited the late Professor Ewurama Addy’s study of the connection between herbal medicine and the sciences saying allopathic and herbal medicine could make headway in health care when appropriately used.
He said the widest social determinants such as roads, water and housing were themselves causes of diseases since water shortage, overcrowding in homes and poor roads and traffic were exposing Ghanaians in various diseases.
Prof Akosa in this regard advised the public to undergo regular health screening for early detection and treatment, explaining that, the body was dynamic and constantly changing and therefore periodic health screening allows early detection of diseases previously unknown to individual.
He said if he had the chance to design Ghana’s health care system, the building of more Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds and the appointment of competent health officers would be paramount.
Prof Ansah mentioned nutrition, immunization and regular exercise as other components of the health care system and that balanced diet, prevention of diseases and exercises were better than drugs as they had a better chance of safeguarding the body against diseases.
Prof. Ahmed Adu-Oppong lecturer at UCC School of Medical Science who presided said it was important to learn about the role communication and culture played in health care delivery and called on Ghanaians to change their superstitious beliefs in order to foster Ghana’s health care system.
Source: GNA