Presenting the preliminary report on Wednesday, Mr. Peter Peprah, the Head of Field Operations at the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and the Project Coordinator for the GMHS 2017, said reduction in the fertility rate was greatly due to the increase in contraceptive usage.

[contextly_sidebar id=”9hCDGCiZ9gffUultAOIf4Iik63XtQH44″]He said the GMHS 2017 report showed that 31 per cent of married women aged 15-49 used any method of contraception and 38 per cent for sexually active unmarried women.

He said 25 per cent of married women and 30 per cent of unmarried women used a modern method of contraception adding that injectable (8 per cent) and implants (7 per cent) were the most used methods.

Mr Peprah said available data revealed much better patronage of contraceptives in previous years compared to June 15 to October 12, 2017 when the survey was conducted by the GSS.

He said these figures were good news for Ghana’s economy as it meant that dependency ratios would decrease and the economy would gain some grounds.

The preliminary survey also revealed improvements in maternal health as 98 per cent of women received antenatal care from a skilled provider with 89 percent having had more than four antenatal care visits.

“Nearly four out of every five were delivered by a skilled provider and in a health facility, forming 79 per cent each, which is far better than the 55 percent skill provider and 54 percent health facility in 2007”, Mr Peprah said.

He said the results showed that health facility deliveries varied by region, from 59 per cent in Northern Region to 92 per cent in Greater Accra.

He said there was a decline in child mortality of all forms in 2017 as compared to that of 2014.

He said: “In 2017 survey, Neonatal was 25 deaths per 1000 live births, Infant- 37, and Under-5 mortality- 52, the highest in 2017 while in 2014, the Neonatal contributed 29 deaths per 1000 births, 41 Infant mortality, and 60 Under-5 mortality in 2014.”

The 2017 GMHS collected data from nationally representative sample of more than 25,000 women aged 15-49, with financial support from government, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Union (EU) delegation to Ghana, and the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA).

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Source: GNA

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Eclampsia is a condition in which one or more convulsions occur in a pregnant woman suffering from high blood pressure, often followed by coma and posing a threat to the health of mother and baby.

Mr. Richard Darko, Regional Information Officer of the Ghana Health Services (GHS) disclosed this at the Central Regional Coordinating Council meeting in Cape Coast.

[contextly_sidebar id=”jCah02qxspCLZ1DPvoRdvWMtPKusi07o”]He described the situation as disheartening and mentioned the predominant districts to include; the Abura Aseibu Kwamankese (AAK), Komenda Edina Eguafo (KEEA), Mfantsiman, Awutu Senya East, Gomoa East, Gomoa West, Ajumako, Assin North and Effutu.

He said maternal deaths increased from 45 in the first quarter of 2016 to 48 in 2017 over the same period, despite having improved on supervised delivery, family planning coverage and qualitative improvement in healthcare services.

That notwithstanding, he expressed the unwavering determination of the Directorate through increased public education, improvement in healthcare services and the adoption of more innovative and pragmatic measures to drastically reduce the maternal deaths in the region.

Touching on HIV/AIDS, Mr Darko said the HIV Sentinel Survey Report showed that the region had been recording a stagnated HIV prevalence rate of 1.8 per cent in the last three years.

Health experts have attributed the increase to high illiteracy rate, poverty and perennial rural-urban migration for non-existent jobs as these factors predisposes individuals to HIV infections.

Nonetheless, the Region did not record any case of cholera in 2017 despite registering 725 cases in the previous year which he explained that the feat was due to a number of health measures put in place by the Health Directorate and other stakeholders, following the high cases record in 2016.

He urged the public to frequently wash their hands with soap, keep their surroundings clean as the rains would soon set in and desist from buying food that was prepared or sold near chocked gutters and unhygienic places.

He indicated that the adoption of hygienic practices to prevent cholera and other communicable diseases was the best way to end the frequent outbreak of the preventable diseases adding that the Region consistently performed well in all disease surveillance indicators and malaria accounted for 37 per cent of OPD attendance in the region.

He assured that the Directorate would continue to train staff in Malaria cases management and provide on-site supportive supervision to improve diagnosis and management.

The GHS had outlined priority areas such as the scaling up of CHPS activities, emergency care and preparedness, commodity security and supply chain, financial management and data quality improvement to serve as a guide in 2018.

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Source: GNA

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Mr. Simeon Kwabena Acheampong, the Regional Manager of Marie Stopes International, Ghana, an international NGO, providing contraception and safe abortion services, said three teenage pregnancy related deaths were also recorded during the period.

Nationwide, 57,000 teenage pregnancies with 31 deaths, were seen.

[contextly_sidebar id=”V2wvlaUOqcCt48QrNn9Y5sDwLN8LFcTf”]He was speaking at a three-day adolescents’ camp meeting organized jointly by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) in Kumasi.

It brought together members of the adolescent health ambassadors clubs in senior high schools (SHS) across the country.

These ambassadors are being supported to create awareness on reproductive health in both their schools and communities as part of stepped up effort to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

The meeting was held under the theme: “Equipping young people as health ambassadors for sustainable development”.

Mr. Acheampong expressed concern about the high rate at which many a young girl were getting pregnant and dropping out of school.

This, he indicated, was unhelpful to the fight to reduce poverty and asked that all combined their effort to give protection to adolescent girls.

Dr. Gloria J. Quansah Asare, the Deputy Director General of GHS, labeled the youth as valuable asset and said everything should be done to help them to avoid missteps and pitfalls.

He spoke of the need to reach out to them with reproductive health services to make the right choices and decisions.

Statistics show that majority of the Ghanaian adolescents are in school and she said that made the school a critical platform for providing adolescent and youth-friendly health services.

That, she indicated, informed the decision by the GHS to form the clubs to get to them, with the right health information and services.

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Source: GNA

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However, immunization coverage declined from 40 per cent in 2015 to 38.2 per cent in 2016.

Dr. Winfred Ofosu, Acting Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, made this known during the 2016 half-year performance review conference in Wa.

He said there was an increase in antenatal care coverage from 41.7 per cent in 2015 to 44.6 per cent in 2016, while skilled delivery coverage increased from 30.5 per cent in 2015 to 33.2 per cent in 2016.

Dr. Ofosu said family planning among women in the fertile age category recorded an increase of 26.3 per cent in 2016 as against 23.9 per cent in 2015.

Adolescent pregnancy also saw an increase from 12.3 per cent in 2015 to 12.9 per cent in 2016, he said.

He said performance in some critical areas was below expectation and called for the need for them to find the causes during the forum and seek ways to improve performance by close of the year.

The Upper West Regional Director of Health Services said the purpose of the performance review conference was to enable them assess their performance in all service areas to determine whether they were on track to achieving their set targets.

It is also for them to identify their strengths, weaknesses and collectively re-strategize to meet the expected performance targets.

This year’s half year performance review conference was under the theme: “Strengthening community level health systems – successes, challenges and the way forward”.

Dr Ofosu said the choice of the theme was underpinned by the critical role community health systems play in improving health outcomes in the household and the community at large.

He said coming on the heels of the just ended phase two of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported project on maternal and neonatal health services improvement, it was also to remind them of their collective responsibility to sustain the gains made through the project implementation.

He said at the community level were the various determinants of health conditions which facilitate the transmission and distribution of diseases.

“These include, lack of antenatal care, inappropriate feeding practices, poor sanitation, open defecation, unimmunized children, unsafe water sources, poor nutrition, lack of family planning, unsafe sex and non-use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) among others”, he said.

Dr Ofosu said all these occurred at the community level and facilitated ill health and death, adding that building strong community level health systems to address these determinants would greatly improve health outcomes.

Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Upper West Regional Minister, said the region was still faced with myriads of health challenges such as malaria, child survival and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, cerebrospinal meningitis among others, adding that government was still investing in the health sector to address these challenges.

He said the provision of 213 functional Community-Based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compounds currently pushed health coverage from 14.6 per cent to 53 per cent of the region’s population.

Alhaji Sulemana said during the period under review, the region realized some improvement in the number of doctors in the area – from 12 in 2013 to 28 in 2015 and to 48 at the end of the mid-year in 2016.

The Regional Minister said the proportion of clients covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) during the period under review was 96.4 per cent against 94.8 per cent in 2015.

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Source: GNA

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