Hypertension tops Ashaiman Out-Patients Department cases in 2020

Hypertension tops Out-Patients Department (OPD) cases in Ashaiman Municipality with 26,322 attendants, the Ashaiman Municipal Health Directorate, has said.

Mrs Patience Ami Mamattah, Ashaiman Municipal Director of Health Services, told the Ghana News Agency at Ashaiman that already 9,633 cases of hypertension had been documented between January and June 2021.

Mrs Mamattah said the figure was an indication that many residents were engaged in unhealthy lifestyles and, therefore, urged them to make good lifestyle decisions.

She noted that some of the lifestyles that residents must be cautious of included alcohol abuse, tobacco usage, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.

She said to tackle such illnesses and for early detection, health facilities in the municipality had wellness units that residents could walk in to check their blood pressure, weight, body mass index, among others.

He, therefore, urged the public to patronize the centres for the necessary checks and advice.

Touching on the other top ten diseases in the Municipality for the year 2020, she said malaria was second on the list with a total of 20,922 cases recorded and 8,379 seen between January and June 2021.

She said while Acute Urinary Tract Infection placed third in 2020 with 17,144, in the first half of 2021, 7,219 gynaecological conditions were attended to, making it the third on the list for this year.

The data showed that 14,741 Upper Respiratory Tract Infections were seen at the various OPDs in 2020 and Acute Urinary Tract Infections accounted for 6,730 patients visiting the hospital.

Anaemia, Typhoid fever, Rheumatism/joint pain/arthritis and skin diseases placed sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth respectively with 9,457, 8,245, 7,231 and 6,015 for the year 2020.

She said Pneumonia with 4,826 cases was at the bottom of the top ten OPD cases.