Scores of residents of Ho on Saturday thronged the forecourts of the palace of the Asogli State for a health screening exercise under the auspices of Vodafone Foundation.

The exercise dubbed: “Healthfest,” and launched in March, this year, is running in the 10 regions with Ho in the Volta Region, being the fifth place for the event. Healthfest in Ho “is a dream come true”, Daniel Ocloo Dzaba, an elder of the Asogli State, told journalists after taking his turn.

People started gathering at the venue as early as 0500 hours and by 0900 hours, 300 people had registered to be screened. The screening setup, comprised sections for registration, Body Mass Index, Blood Pressure Checks, Laboratory, Consultation and Pharmacy. There was also gymnasium and kids play spot.

There were screenings for Hepatitis B, Diabetes, Tuberculosis and HIV in the exercise done in collaboration with mainly local health professionals. Mr Daniel Asiedu, Corporate Communications Manager, told Ghana News Agency (GNA) that Vodafone Healthfest is another indication of the telephony giant’s attachment to promoting health in Ghana.

He said Vodafone’s health programmes are aimed at breaking barriers of distance and cost between the people and health services. Mr Asiedu said Healthfest “brings services to the door steps of the people” while Healthline, another celebrated Vodafone health project, supports people to undergo “life changing” treatments.

He said 15 people from the Volta Region had so far benefited from treatments under Healthline. Mr Asiedu said “going by the overwhelming” response, more than 800 people would have gone through the screening process by 1700 hours.

Dr Richmond Opare told GNA that five hours into the exercise the established trend among those with health problems was high blood pressure. He said many with such condition had been on treatment but aborted scheduled visits to the health facilities.

Dr Opare said there were a few cases of diabetes and HIV, while there was concern with overweight. Mr Courage Botchway a Data Officer of National HIV Control Programme took the mounting numbers of people through the health education segment of the exercise.

He expressed the importance of knowing one’s HIV status so that carriers, including pregnant women could be put on routine lifesaving treatment. There was a Customer Care stand where clients of Vodafone seeking information were handled.