There are about 870 suspected cases of tuberculosis (TB) in the Adaklu District, Mr Samuel Atidzah, Executive Director of GOSANET, a health focused non-governmental organization, has said.

He said the cases were mostly found in young adults in their “productive and economic years.”

Mr Atidzah was addressing a day’s performance review workshop for 15 TB volunteers drawn from selected communities in the Adaklu District in Ho on Monday.

It was organised by GOSANET Foundation with support from “Stop TB Ghana Partnership.”

Mr Atidzah said GOSANET reached over 30,000 people in the District with TB advocacy, communication and social mobilization and attributed the TB cases in the District to smoking.

He commended the volunteers for their commitment to efforts at eliminating TB in the District and said more needed to be done to reach many young people.

Mr Atidzah said about one third of the World’s population had latent tuberculosis (TB), meaning, they are carriers of the disease though not ill and could not transmit it and called for concerted efforts to address it.

He said persons with compromised immune systems such as those living with HIV and AIDS, malnutrition, diabetes and people who use tobacco had much higher risk of becoming infected with the disease.

Ms Pearl Baah, the Adaklu District TB Co-ordinator, said the disease remained the second greatest killer after HIV and AIDS Worldwide.

She said she was hopeful that a new laboratory under construction at Adaklu Waya, the District capital would help boost the detection and control of the disease in the District.

The volunteers said bad road network and lack of means of transportation were hampering their work in the District.