Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai, Chairperson of the Ghana Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance, has asked health workers, not to over concentrate on the COVID-19 pandemic at the expense of non-communicable diseases.

She said people with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke, kidney problems and others, have been identified to be more vulnerable to the virus.

“It is important, therefore, to see people with these conditions as high risk and provide urgent assistant.”

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi, Dr Wiafe Addai said report from the Ghana Health Service indicated that, all the people who have died of the disease, were those with these underlying health conditions.

“There is, therefore, the need for health workers to show keen interest in patients who visited their facilities with these conditions and provide them with the needed treatment and care to help improve their immune system”, she stated.

Dr Wiafe Addai, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Breast Care International (BCI), pointed out that the increasing spate of non-communicable disease infections in the country, especially among young people, was worrying.

She said it was important for the government to focus more attention on the preventive measures to help reduce the rate of infections while encouraging health workers to see such diseases as an important health concern and show greater commitment in their treatment and management.

Dr Wiafe Addai, commended the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for recognizing that non-communicable diseases had a greater impact on the fatalities caused by the pandemic in the country.

She urged the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to lead an initiative to create a sustained awareness campaign on non-communicable diseases and the havoc it was causing in society.

This, according to her, would make people change their lifestyles and attitudes as well as their eating habits to control infections.