Cigarette smoking and excessive alcoholism are the main causes of Tuberculosis (TB) infections, Mr Raymond Gyau, Disease Control Officer at the Sunyani Municipal Hospital said on Tuesday.

He recommended that the ban on public smoking should be enforced to protect innocent citizens from infections.

Mr Gyau made the observation at a day’s training programme on TB detection and control for some selected queen mothers in Sunyani.

It was organised by Hope for Future Generation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), working to improve education, health and socio-economic status of women, and sponsored by the National TB Control Programme.

Mr Gyau said that 52,000 cases of TB were recorded in the country annually while the disease killed about 50 per cent of those with the disease when not properly treated.

He said the Sunyani Municipal Hospital recorded 44 TB cases in 2012 as against 42 in 2011.

Mr Gyau said men and boys were mostly affected by TB because of their indulgence in smoking and alcoholism, indicating that they accounted for 80 per cent of all TB recorded cases.

He said treatment for TB was free and appealed to the general public to help identify victims to seek medication.

Mrs Josephine Pomaa, also a Disease Control Officer at the Hospital, said that everyone was at risk of contracting TB, and appealed to Ghanaians to help prevent the spread of the disease.

She advised TB patients to take TB drugs regularly and report early to health facilities when they cough continuously for three weeks.

Nana Yaa Nyamaa, Queenmother of Sunyani Traditional Area, condemned the stigmatization of TB patients and observed that people with TB sometimes fell shy to go to the hospital.