Anaemia; leading cause of death in Volta Region
Anaemia has been identified as the leading cause of death, especially among pregnant women, in the Volta Region.
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According to an annual review report of the Volta Regional Health Directorate, 237 deaths due to anaemia were recorded from the various health facilities in the region last year.
Anaemia, which was the fourth cause of death in 2013, shot to the first position in 2014 due to unavailability of blood in the blood banks at the various health facilities in the region.
The Volta Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Joseph Nuertey, delivered the report at the opening ceremony of the 2014 performance review meeting in Ho.
The theme of the meeting was “Achieving excellence and improved services delivery outcomes through effective linkage between public health and clinical services.”
Blood Donation
Dr Nuertey said it was time people did away with superstition and responded to the call for blood donations to save lives.
He said health managers should be concerned with the quality of medical care rendered to the public and offer pieces of advice to patients, particularly pregnant women, on healthy lifestyle.
According to him, although malaria remained one of the major causes of morbidity at Out-Patient Departments (OPDs), it reduced drastically from 880,467 in 2013 to 695,329 in 2014.
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Issues of syphilis and leprosy dropped from 473 and 78 respectively in 2013 to 339 and 62 in 2014.
Touching on cholera, Dr Nuertey stated that the region experienced cholera outbreak in eight districts with 1,187 reported cases and 11 deaths.
The director said the region performed creditably, particularly in family health services, but fell short in maternal health mortality because maternal deaths increased from 72 cases in 2013 to 82 in 2014.