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Afedzi Abdullah, RNG
Cape Coast, March 16th
GNA – The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has described the high incidence of anemia
"Alarming" among women in the central region and called for effective treatment
collaboration among stakeholders to address the concern.
According to
Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) conducted in 2014, more than 47
% of women aged 15-49 in the Region were anemic.
Dr. Kwabena Sarpong,
The Deputy Regional Director for Public Health at the Center, who made the call, noted
that the high prevalence of adolescent anemia and menstruation
women in the region and its impact on society can not be considered
ignored.
He was talking to a
regional awareness meeting with stakeholders in Cape Coast to solicit their
support for the successful implementation of the Girls Iron Folate tablet
Supplementary Program (GIFTS) to be deployed in the region in
April.
GIFTS, an audience
is intended to provide adolescents with free weekly help
supplements of iron and folic acid (IFA), to help prevent and reduce
prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in girls of this age group.
It's a collaboration
between the GHS and the Ghana Education Service (GES) with funding from
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Dr. Sarpong expressed
fear that the condition was as a result of the lack of nutrition needed to
many teenage and menstruating women, especially adolescent girls
pregnancy was also high.
He lamented that many
teenage mothers and their children did not eat food that would give them
the right nutrients for healthy growth because of poverty, adding that
teenage girls should eat well to replenish the blood and iron lost during
menstruation.
"If the teenager
do not eat well This compromises his hemoglobin and if the hemoglobin
the level is low, it's worse for menstruation. In case she gets
pregnant, this has further aggravated her health, "he said.
He said the immediate
The side effect of anemia was poor memory and, ultimately, poor education
performance, while the long-term effect could be complications during pregnancy
such as premature or dead births and even death during childbirth.
Dr. Sarpong called for
effective engagement with key partners in the districts and urged all
stakeholders to play their respective roles in the implementation of the
program to achieve the desired results.
Ms. Rachael Mensah, a
Head of Nutrition at the Regional Directorate of Health, said the GIFTS program
sought to reduce teenage anemia rates in the region of at least
20 percent.
She said the
program meets the criteria of the World Health Organization (WHO)
recommendations that women with menses should receive folic acid (Iron Folic Acid, IFA)
supplements whose prevalence of anemia was greater than 40%.
Statistics indicate
47.7% of adolescent girls in the area were anemic, which meant
that they do not receive enough nutrients and that families should diversify their
regimes.
Ms. Mensah said that
program would go a long way towards improving adolescent girls' knowledge and
women on the causes and prevention of anemia and as well as contribute to
improvement of adolescent girls' school results.
She stressed the need
women to properly prepare their nutritional status before pregnancy, by adding
that, this could be done by eating foods that contain all the particular minerals
the iron.
Teenagers and
menstruating women would receive health education during the program.
GNA
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