Ashaiman (GAR), Sept 25, GNA - At least 52,000 people throughout the country get infected with Tuberculosis (TB) every year, officials say.

Mrs Comfort Nyameba Opoku, Head of the Laboratory Department at the Tema General Hospital, who disclosed this at Adjei-Kodjo, near Ashaiman at the weekend, said half the number of TB patients die due to lack of proper treatment.

She was speaking at a sensitisation durbar organised by the Centre for Family Support (CEFAS), a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), in collaboration with the National TB Control Programme. The seminar was aimed at educating the residents on the dangers of the disease and how to prevent it.

Mrs Opoku assured Ghanaians that government had taken up the cost of drugs for the treatment of TB, and therefore entreated patients not to hesitate to go to the hospital for free treatment.

She asked Ghanaians to encourage TB patients to take drugs as prescribed by health workers, and for the full duration of treatment. The Laboratory head advised people in the community to report early to health institutions if they experienced persistent cough for two weeks or more.

Mrs Opoku stated that as an infectious disease caused by a small germ, TB "can affect all parts of the body", adding, however, that "most people suffer from TB affecting the lungs, which is the most infectious form of the disease".

She explained that TB could be contracted during close social contacts and also through coughing, sneezing and spitting in front of others.

Mrs Opoku was quick to add, however, that one needed a prolonged and close social contact with an affected person to develop the disease, such as sharing the same room with the affected individual for a considerable length of time.

She warned that everyone was at risk of getting TB if exposed to an affected individual.

She advised Ghanaians to use only prescribed drugs to treat the disease in order to help control effectively the growing threat of TB in the country.

Reverend Nkansa Kyeremateng, Executive Director of CEFAS, called for a concerted effort from all sectors of the economy to eradicate the disease, adding that it was in the light of this that CEFAS had joined the fight against TB as part of the Global Agenda of the World Health Organisation to eliminate the disease by year 2050.

Rev. Kyeremateng said it had educated pupils and students in selected basic, junior and senior secondary schools within the Tema Municipality, on adolescent reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. The Executive Director said in some of these educational institutions, the Centre assisted in establishing virgin or virtuous clubs to inculcate in the children the need to guard against pre-marital sex.