HANDS International, a US-based health NGO, in collaboration with Coastal TV and Gift Alliance, a philanthropic NGO, has embarked on a week-long free medical outreach at Biriwa in the Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region.
The multispecialty medical team, made up of some 60 health professionals from the USA, Ghana, and Nigeria, are providing a variety of health services including screening, treatment, surgeries, and supply of free medications.
It is the mission of the health NGO to provide health care for deprived and distressed communities across the world.
Between Monday and Wednesday, the team attended to between 2,500 and 3,000 people from across the region and projected to reach out to 5,000 people by the end of the programme at Biriwa Polyclinic on Friday.
Dr Reynold Agar, an internal medicine physician and President of HANDS International, told the GNA that the exercise was also targeted at sensitising the public to various health conditions to cause a change in their lifestyles.
He observed that cardiovascular conditions accounted for most deaths in the world even though their causes including diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol could be prevented or managed with better lifestyles.
“Some people have absolutely no clue that salt affects their blood pressure,” he stated, adding that the number one cause of stroke was high blood pressure while the number one cause of kidney problems, blindness, amputation and eventually death, was diabetes.
To deal with complication of diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol to prevent stroke, Dr Agar said they were taking some patients through echocardiogram – a scan to check the heart and nearby blood vessels for early diagnosis and treatment.
“If we can at least help one person in Ghana to prevent or delay the progression of these diseases, we think we would have accomplished our goal,” he noted.
Dr Agar said HANDS International considered the world a neighbour and found it mandatory to extend support to the less privileged at every opportunity.
“We have a passion for helping people and like Mahatma Ghandhi said, ‘the best way to find oneself is to lose oneself in the service of others.
“We take priority in places that have disaster… including Nepal, Haiti and Bahamas where there have been disasters and currently, we are getting ready to go to Turkey and Syria because of the earthquake,” he added.
Mr Selete Nyomi, Executive Director of Coastal TV, and Gift Alliance, explained that two relations, Dr. Kofi Kutu Gyan and Madam Paulina Gyan, old students of St Augustine’s College and Holy Child School respectively, facilitated the visitation of the team to Ghana.
He said as on Tuesday, March 7, some 15 people had undergone surgery, adding that all beneficiaries of the exercise were given free decent meal.
He intimated that the huge turnout reflected the poor health situation in the country.
“Many people are ill but are unable to go to the hospital just because they cannot afford it and are keeping their sicknesses and probably some may die and we will not know what killed them,” he said.
Mr Nyomi urged the public to emulate the gesture of HANDS International and support deprived communities.
“For instance, you can have medical mission teams, go out to support the vulnerable and it will go a long way to make our country a better place,” he admonished.
