Category: Medicine

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has held a sensitization exercise to educate traders at Nima market and Madina Polyclinic -Kekele on medicine adverse reactions and how to report when they experience sure.

Adverse reactions or side effects are harmful, unwanted, troublesome, and unpleasant feelings that are not expected but show up when medicines are taken.

This may start immediately after taking the medicine or may take time to develop and it could be mild in most cases but severe in other circumstances.

Ms Rebecca Mensah, with the Communications and Public Relations Department of the FDA, speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said the exercise formed part of activities to mark this year’s World Patient Safety Day celebrations on the theme: ‘Engaging Patients for Patient Safety.’

The annual celebration, initiated by the World Health Organization and celebrated on September 17, is dedicated to raising awareness about patient safety and advocating for better healthcare practices.

She said the objective of the sensitization was to empower patients and the public with information on how to respond when they experience side effects related to the use of medicines, vaccines, and other health products.

Ms Mensah, speaking to the traders and some public members explained that reporting adverse events was important as it could help expose unknown harm and prevent others from suffering from the same.

She said reporting could also help detect counterfeit and substandard medicines and other products on the Ghanaian market.

She advised the public to report any adverse reaction to medicines, vaccines, blood products, food supplements, herbal medicines, cosmetics, and household chemicals on the Med Safety App.

The Mobile App provides a quick and easy way to report adverse reactions and grants users instant access to medicines safety information and other news from the FDA.

Ms Mensah again urged people without Android phones to download the App to contact the FDA on 024 4310 297 to report.

Other topics discussed during the exercise include substandard and falsified medicinal products and what to look out for when buying medicines

Source: Ghana News Agency

Dr Robert Incoom, Director of Pharmacy at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH), has entreated the public to always consult the pharmacist before taking any medication. He warned that taking drugs which were not duly prescribed by a qualified medical practitioner was extremely dangerous and could be fatal. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Dr Incoom explained that pharmacists per their training, played a lifesaving role in health care delivery and, therefore, should not be by-passed. He explained that many diseases might have similar symptoms but required completely different treatments and cautioning citizens to be wary. ‘When medicines are not prescribed or recommended by the pharmacist or any health care provider, you stand the risk of developing adverse drug reaction which could cause more illness and even death. ‘So, we are encouraging the populace to consult their pharmacist or health care provider on any issue on medicine, so that we ensure that together the pharmacy and the entire health care team promote quality health care,’ he said. He added that CCTH had established a fully-fledged clinical pharmacy unit to ensure patients who were admitted went through medication therapy review to optimise drug therapy and improve the quality of care. He said the hospital was determined to expand its pharmaceutical and clinical pharmacy services to give patients the best of health care and increase access.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has urged patients and their caregivers to report adverse reactions experienced when using medicines, vaccines and other health products for appropriate regulatory action. This could also be done through Adverse Reactions Reporting forms available in healthcare facilities and the BlueForm available from Community Pharmacies designated as Patient Safety Centres or call the FDA on mobile number 024 4310 297. The FDA made the call in a statement signed by the Chief Executive Officer and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Monday to mark this year’s World Patient Safety Day celebrations. The annual event, initiated by the World Health Organization and celebrated on September 17th, is dedicated to raising awareness about patient safety and advocating for better healthcare practices. The theme for this year’s celebrations is, ‘Engaging patients for patient safety,’ with the slogan ‘Elevate the voice of patients.’ It said patients as well as the public could report their experiences through the Med Safety App available on Play Store and App Store for Android and iOS devices respectively. The celebration recognizes the crucial role patients, families, and caregivers play in the delivery of effective healthcare. It said the theme resonated deeply with the FDA’s commitment to ensuring that patients and the Ghanaian population have access to safe, quality, and efficacious medicine and other health products. The statement said in line with the theme for this year’s Patient Safety Day the FDA has planned a series of nationwide media and stakeholder engagement activities across the regions this week starting from Monday, September 18, 2023. ‘The objective of these activities is to empower patients and the public with information on how to respond when they experience side effects related to the use of medicines, vaccines and other health products,’ it added. It said the empowerment aimed at enhancing the patient’s participation in the FDA’s mission to ensure the safety of the products. It therefore urged the public to contact the FDA for further information.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) on Saturday went for a health walk to sensitise the public on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the need to exercise regularly to prevent their occurence.

Survivors of various conditions joined the staff, management and community members with placards informing the public on a raft of medical conditions including cancer, eye diseases, and osteogenesis imperfecta (a group of inherited disorders caused by defective genes).

The three-hour exercise, the penultimate of activities marking the Hospital’s 25th Anniversary celebration, took participants through some major streets of Cape Coast; Abura, Pedu, Aquarium, and Starlet 91.

Dr Eric Kofi Ngedu, the Chief Executive Officer, CCTH, noted that NCDs were becoming a big global health concern, which needed to be tackled through preventive means instead of curative.

He maintained that frequent exercises were the surest way to mitigating the risk of many NCDs and urged the public to make exercising part of their daily lives.

‘When you exercise your body regularly, you have very active circulatory system and a potent immune system to fight many diseases,’ he noted.

‘It is not palatable to get sick and come to the hospital. It is our expectation that Ghanaians will not get sick so that health personnel will visit people in their homes to do health promotion instead of the curative medicine that we are practicing.’

Touching on the growth of the Hospital, Dr Ngedu said management was satisfied with the progress made over the years in spite of all the challenges.

However, efforts were still on course to improve infrastructure, technology and human resources to enhance service delivery and make the facility the greatest in Ghana, he said.

‘I have no doubt that we are on the path to becoming a world class leader in tertiary health care, medical education and research,’ Dr Ngedu said.

He expressed gratitude to the Government for its continuous support to infrastructure development and financial clearance to augment staff strength.

He also commended the management, past and present leadership, as well as staff for their dedication towards achieving the mandate and ensuring progress of the facility.

‘Management has lobbied for various projects, many of which are ongoing. The President visited the monumental Infectious Disease Centre last year, which is now 100 per cent complete and only awaiting handing over,’ he stated.

Dr Robert Incoom, the Director of Pharmacy, and Chairman of the Operations Committee of the Anniversary, said the health walk was a demonstration of how the Hospital was repositioning itself to deliver excellence in quality health care delivery.

The CCTH now had a fully-fledged clinical pharmacy unit, which took admitted patients through medication therapy review to optimise drug therapy and ensure patients received the best treatment.

‘We are poised to expand the pharmaceutical and clinical pharmacy services in the hospital to ensure patients receive the best health care and also improve universal health coverage to people of the Central Region and Ghana at large,’ he said.

The foundation stone for the hospital was laid in 1996 and was completed and commissioned in 1998 as a referral hospital but has now been upgraded to a teaching hospital.

The year-long anniversary is on the theme: ’25 years of Quality Health Care: Repositioning for Excellence.’

It will be climaxed with a grand durbar on Wednesday, September 20, with the guest of honour being Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.

Source: Ghana News Agency

An 11-day-old newborn has undergone a successful surgery to remove a catheter (foreign object) that was lodged next to her heart on Sunday at Luanda’s Cardiopulmonary Diseases Hospital Complex.

“This is the first surgery carried out on a child of that weight and age, whose life was at risk due to the catheterization,” said the director of the institution’s Cardiovascular Service, Valdano Manuel.

The doctor explained that the child, who was born weighing four kilos and 200 grams, arrived at the hospital from a private clinic, where a foreign object measuring 23 centimeters was found.

The surgery, which lasted around three hours, with the support of 20 health professionals, was carried out to prevent the foreign object from reaching the lung.

Another concern, the doctor said, was the small size of the newborn’s heart, considering that if the foreign object had reached the lung, it would cause difficulties in getting blood to the lung that could eventually lead to the child’s death.

The director stressed that the surgery was difficult due to the size of the child, which made the procedure complex, sensitive and difficult making it challenging for the medical team.

Anesthesiologist Belmira Luís, one of the members of the operating team, explained that they had to be cautious due to the patient’s age, combined with the conditions in the room: “We had to have the right conditions to carry out the surgery successfully. The child was stabilised eight hours later”, she said.

Cardiac surgery specialist Josyneide de Carvalho said that the operation represented a historic milestone, as it was the first operation on a child of this age. “The patient is stable and could leave intensive care within 48 hours,” she said.

Inaugurated in November 2021, the Cardio-Pulmonary Diseases Hospital Complex employs around 1,890 professionals, from doctors, nurses, diagnostic technicians and administrative staff.

The facility covers an area of 49,940 squares equipped with modern, state-of-the-art equipment that guarantees the diagnosis and treatment of cardio-pulmonary diseases.

Source: Angola Press News Agency