Awutu Beraku(C/R), Jan. 31, GNA - Hypertension cases recorded in healt= h facilities at Awutu-Senya increased from 0.56 per cent in 2009 to 0.75 per cent in 2010, Mrs Patricia Antwi, Awutu Senya District Director of Health Service has said.

She said this at the 2010 Annual Health Performance Review meeting at Awutu Beraku in the Central Region. She urged the people in the area to change their eating habits and lifestyle to help reduce the Hypertension cases in the area. The District Director said the directorate recorded high antenatal, supervised delivery and postnatal care coverage in the year under review. She attributed the success story to various interventions initiated to reduce maternal mortality in the district.

Mrs Antwi said, "There is still more room for improvement in antenatal care as 12 per cent of antenatal mothers were seen in the third trimester and 35 still births were also recorded in the district". She said in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, the Directorate had put in place, Community Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (CIMCI), which is one of the key child survival interventions in 29 communities in the district.

The CIMCI is aimed at delivering curative care to people especially children suffering from diseases including Fever, Malaria and diarrhoea. She said UNICEF was sponsoring the CIMCI programme, adding that volunteers trained to manage the CIMCI had been given drugs and advised to refer cases beyond their competence to the relevant health centres and hospitals. She commended the Awutu-Senya District Assembly, Member of Parliament, Plan Ghana and stakeholders who supported the directorate to perform it duties and urged them to continue to assist in the years ahead.