Preventive medicine: the solution to our economic problems

Government of Ghana and Africa as a whole expend over millions of US dollars in an attempt to eradicate, manage or cure certain ill conditions such as Malaria, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hepatitis B, all cancers, tuberculosis, dermatitis, etc. The question is; are these aforementioned ill conditions preventable? Why did we allow them to affect and kill us in the first place? What measures did government and we put in place to prevent them from infecting us in the first place?

The undeniable fact is that we fold our arms unconcerned and watch ill conditions to take us to our graves before we start thinking of solutions when these conditions are easily preventable if we make our preventive medical team effective and efficient and government will save millions on drugs.

It is quite amazing to see government waste task payers’ money and solicited funds from international communities to set up a committee to educate and create public awareness on epidemic of diseases when the same methodology could have been done persistently by preventive medical team in health service to prevent the epidemic from happening in the first place. My heart is full of sorrow if in this 21st century; a country like Ghana and some African countries cannot observe simple environmental and personal hygiene and suffer from cholera outbreak and to the extent of death.

This is a clear indication that the health of the inhabitants of Ghana and some part of the Africa continent are not safe because our health delivery system is chronically sick and needs thorough diagnosis and prescriptions for better health status. If the preventive medical team of Africa health services functions properly, there would be few ill conditions and government expenditure on health will reduce gargantuan. Productivity will reach it peak hence boosting our economy because smaller portion of the population will be sick.

Moreover government will save millions of US dollars to savage our collapsing economy because lesser amount of money will be spent on importation and manufacturing of drugs, national health insurance scheme, medical gadgets or apparatus.

More importantly, money government spent in training Nutritionist at the universities and colleges, Environmental health trainees at College of health can yield enormously if these trainees are employed to be part of policy making and implementation bodies in agriculture and health.

The true state of Ghana and some part of Africa now is, the inhabitants are pushing hard at all cost to let their wards be medical doctors, nurses and other so called lucrative jobs because the focus of the government is solely on those things.

Ghana and Africa as a whole has lost focus and that is where my fear begins because everybody want to be a nurse or doctor but we have quite a number of nurses and doctors and yet a city like Accra, Elubo, Tamale and other places in Ghana and Africa still die of cholera in this 21st century and government spend a lot to save their lives.

Although you may not know the relevance of the services of Nutritionist, Environmental health worker, and other health workers in disease prevention campaign, nevertheless, they play a significant role in your life.

In conclusion, some people will become ill or die young no matter what choices they make, and others will live long lives despite making poor choices and there shall be economic crises for the majority of African countries, however, government policies and priorities place on health delivery system each and every day will benefit or impair our economic problems in proportion to the wisdom of those choices.

Also government should train more public health personnel such as Nutritionist, Epidemiologist, etc. and fully employ them and dispense them to the various communities and not offices to preach about the gospel of disease prevention.

Scholarships should also be awarded to people whose passion is disease prevention to pursue their masters in public health abroad so that they can be well equipped, skilled and experienced in health education and promotion to help salvage mother Ghana and Africa.

Written by: Kwasi Emmanuel Nutritionist (UDS)

Tel: +233 0247823111/0275646663

Email: [email protected]