Minerals Commission office of Kumasi receives health talk on kidney disease prevention. Staff of the Ashanti Regional office of the Minerals Commission in Kumasi have benefited from a health talk on how to prevent kidney disease.
With the rise in the national discourse on the cost of treatment of kidney disease in Ghana, particularly the cost of dialysis, it has become paramount that citizens get to know about kidney disease and how to prevent it.
The average Ghanaian has very little knowledge on kidneys and kidney disease. Even though the Kidney Health International has been embarking on public health education on kidney disease prevention, the call for health talks from various institutions have intensified due to the ongoing national discourse on cost of treatment occassioned by the rise in the cost of dialysis.
In response to one of such calls, two volunteers and the programs manager visited the Minerals Commission.
In his presentation, the Programs Manager, Mr Sylvanus Gatorwu reiterated the point that “kidney disease is without symptoms at its early stages” and that the best thing anyone could do aside the healthy practices such as drinking enough water, cutting down on exersive salt intake and taking medications with caution among others, was to regularly check their kidney functions at least once a year.
When asked if any of the participants had ever checked the status of their kidneys before, many looked shocked as they didn’t even know that this was something they ought to do.
Eventually, only one woman out of the almost 30 people present had done such a “check” and proudly carried her results with her.
After the talk, participants engaged in a question and answer time that lasted close to an hour just to ensure that they had understood the topic into detail. Mr Felix Amissah, the regional Director of the commission was elated about the presentation and asked for a second visit from the group of volunteers.