Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0143/01430.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 29KB | 464 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01430}
$Pretitle{353}
$Title{Ghana
Chapter 6B.   Health}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{medical
health
areas
disease
hospitals
training
country
government
diseases
facilities}
$Date{1970}
$Log{}
Country:     Ghana
Book:        Area Handbook for Ghana
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1970

Chapter 6B.   Health

     Neither the 1960 census nor the preliminary findings of the 1970 census
included health data. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s responsibility
for various health programs shifted. As late as the mid-1960s there was no
regular system for gathering medical statistics, and there was no information
suggesting the development of one in 1970. Available figures were from
scattered samplings and were collected mainly on a haphazard basis or were the
summation of hospital records and therefore only partially reflected the total
health situation.

     Projections based on a United Nations formula would indicate a life
expectancy of forty-eight years. In 1965 the actual expectancy fell somewhat
short of this. The birth rate had been slowly increasing from about 42 per
1,000 persons in 1955 to about 50 per 1,000 persons in the late 1960s. The
death rate had remained more or less constant at about 20 per 1,000 persons.
Infant mortality stood at about 156 per 1,000 infants in 1965; this
represented a higher figure than in 1955, probably largely the result of
improved reporting.

Prevalent Diseases

     Accurate statistical information on the incidence of common diseases is
lacking because only a limited percentage of the sick come to the attention of
medical authorities and because the system of medical recording has not been
adequately developed. Headaches and stomach complaints are commonplace as
indicated by the large sums spent on patent headache and stomach remedies.
Although statistics indicate no change, the actual disease rate seems to be
decreasing slowly as government health programs reach a degree of
effectiveness. The discrepancy is caused by a growing tendency of persons to
seek medical assistance and to have diseases recorded that previously were not
brought to the attention of the health authorities.

     Among the most common illnesses are malaria, various kinds of dysentery
and parasitic diseases, yaws, several kinds of pneumonia, and tuberculosis.
Leprosy, sleeping sickness, and venereal diseases also claim a large number of
victims. Epidemic diseases, such as yellow fever, have been largely controlled
through mass vaccination. In late 1970 cholera was reported in a number of
West African countries, including Ghana. Steps were being taken to deal with
the outbreak, and it was expected that vaccine could be manufactured locally.
Illnesses are caused by the plethora of disease-carrying insects common
throughout the tropics, particularly in the rain forest and along waterways;
by the use of polluted water for bathing and drinking; by malnutrition, which
causes specific disabilities and also lowers resistance to every disease; and
by the low level of sanitation and personal hygiene, which creates breeding
grounds for infection and disease. Every cut or skin abrasion is dangerous; a
mosquito or fly bite may lead to malaria or blindness. Childbirth is a serious
risk. Many diseases fatal to a European are endemic to large segments of the
population and claim relatively few lives, although they weaken a person's
whole system and shorten his life expectancy.

     Malaria is a major killer of newborn infants, and few Ghanaians escape
contracting it at an early stage of life. For most African adults, malaria is
a relatively mild disease because resistance has been either inherited or
built up during childhood, but Europeans are highly susceptible and are likely
to contract it in an acute and dangerous form. Poor sanitation and drainage
facilities in urban areas make particularly ripe breeding grounds for
mosquitoes, as do riverine areas in the north. Government efforts at control
have included larval and residual spraying, drainage, and vegetation clearing.
Special projects launched in the early 1960s in cooperation with WHO and
UNICEF in the Volta and Northern regions experimented with the incorporation
of antimalarial drugs in basic food commodities, such as salt.

     The second major group of diseases includes the various kinds of
dysentery and parasitic diseases, which are seldom fatal but seriously
debilitating. Their high incidence reflects the low standard of public health,
since most are transmitted through polluted water. Both bacillary and amoebic
dysentery occur, but the relative and absolute incidence of the two forms is
unknown. Hookworm infection is widespread, with reported infection ranges of
40 to 80 percent in various areas. Roundworm infection exists, and several
types of tapeworm are found in the northern parts of the country. Guinea worm
infection disables 10,000 persons completely and 90,000 persons partially each
year in the northern areas and is the major disabling disease throughout the
country. Another waterborne parasitic disease, bilharziasis, has affected
about 20 percent of the population at one time or another. Its reduction was
one of the particular government goals during the 1960s.

     Venereal disease of all types occur, gonorrhea being the most prevalent.
Since only the most severe cases register for treatment, the extent of these
infections is unknown. The incidence of venereal disease in rural areas seems
to be on a decline, possibly as a result of the extensive use of penicillin in
the treatment of yaws.

     Yaws, highly infectious sores associated with uncleanliness, are common
throughout the country. A full-scale yaws campaign, with material and
technical assistance from WHO, has been in progress since the late 1950s in
all regions. Mobile field units roam the countryside examining and treating as
many people as possible.

     In the mid-1960s leprosy was widespread and afflicted an estimated
70,000 persons. Only about 30 percent of these were registered and receiving
treatment. There were five leper colonies and one major treatment center.
Mobile units, however, were being used to extend treatment to isolated areas.
The mobile units followed a set route and schedule, providing treatment on a
regular basis. Drugs for the treatment of leprosy were supplied free of charge
by UNICEF. The incidence of leprosy rises gradually from south to north.

     Sleeping sickness, carried by the tsetse fly, is a major problem,
particularly in the central areas. About one-third of the country is infested
with the fly, which breeds in the dense bush bordering bodies of water and is
most prevalent in a wide belt crossing the country from the lower part of the
Brong-Ahafo Region, through the Ashanti Region and parts of the Eastern
Region, into the Volta Region. Sleeping sickness may be dormant in a person
for many years, sapping his energy and lowering his resistance to other
diseases, but when it emerges quick death is certain. The activities of the
mobile field units, which treat victims in the early stages of the disease,
when it is still curable, have considerably reduced the death rate.

     Various methods used in the late 1960s to reduce the incidence of the
disease included trapping, land clearing, chemical control, and the pruning of
breeding areas, none of which was adequate by itself. The flies were proving
particularly hardy and, for example, quickly moved to plants resistant to
fires or to less accessible island sanctuaries. Some areas had been cleared
and become fly free, and the incidence of the disease seemed to have been
reduced. The ecological influence of the Volta River Project on the fly
population has yet to be determined. The country was cooperating with the West
African Institute for Trypanosomiasis in Nigeria in the study of control and
elimination of the disease.

     Tuberculosis is one of the major diseases in the country. In some areas
it is almos