Mamponteng (Ash), April 30, GNA - Dr Kwasi Yeboah-Awudzi, Kwabre District Director of Health Services, has advised persons above the age of 40 to check their blood pressure and blood sugar at least once in a year.

He said the tendency to get hypertension and diabetes at that age was high, stressing that the negative effects of diabetes and hypertension could be minimized when diagnosed early. Dr Yeboah-Awudzi was speaking to newsmen after he had led a team of medical personnel from the District Directorate of Health Services to undertake free medical check-up during which 115 people had their blood pressure and sugar levels checked at Mamponteng on Saturday. Similar exercises were undertaken at Ankaase where 65 people were diagnosed and 52 people also checked their blood pressure and sugar levels at Asonomaso.

The directorate embarked on the exercise as part of activities to mark Africa Malaria Day, which falls on April 25 every year. The directorate also organized health walk covering a distance of 10 kilometres from Mamponteng to Medoma and back and also sold Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets to the public to mark the Day. Dr Yeboah-Awudzi said the directorate decided to screen for hypertension and diabetes because there had been an increase in such diseases in recent years in the District.

He indicated that the incidence of malaria cases in the District increased to 57 per cent of the Out-Patient Department (OPD) cases in 2005 as against 48 per cent in 2004, stressing that malaria was a big problem in the District.

He said out of the 57 per cent, 25 per cent were children under five years and pointed out that death in children due to malaria had gone down.

He said in 2004 it was between 5 to 8 per cent but went down to one per cent in 2005 because of the improvement of management in the health facilities.

The District Health Director said the government had brought in a lot of treated mosquito nets as a way to manage the disease and encouraged people especially pregnant women to buy the nets to protect themselves and their children. 30 April 06