Health News of Thursday, 11 January 2007

Source: GNA

Tema Police sensitised on prostate cancer

Tema, Jan 11, GNA- A prostate cancer awareness creation workshop was on Thursday organised for personnel of Tema Police, with a call on them to have regular check up for the disease.

It was organised by, Prostate Awareness Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), that seek to educate the public on the dangers of the disease among men.

Mr George Kwabena Owusu, Founder of the NGO and a survivor of prostrate cancer, appealed to the public to sympathise with people with the disease instead of stigmatising them, so that they could share their experiences with the public.

He observed that even though some men had prostrate cancer many of them failed to report to the hospital because of the perception by some people that only womanizers could contract the disease. Mr Owusu said records indicated that in developing countries like Ghana one out of every three men had the disease.

He said even though experts have not yet identified the causes of the disease, diet, ethnicity and heredity were some of the conditions that contributed to the growth of the disease.

Mr Owusu said he had the disease about two years ago but was now healthy because he sought medical attention earlier, adding that the NGO could counsel people suffering from the disease.

He said the NGO was working to ensure that centres for the treatment of the disease are established through out the ten regions of Ghana and called on Government and stakeholders to support the training of more experts to handle the diseases.