Agogo (Ash), May 16, GNA - Major Courage E.K. Quashigah (rtd), the Minister of Health, on Monday opened a four-week first ever international surgical management training course on Buruli Ulcer and other related diseases at Agogo in the Asante-Akim North District. The Ministry of Health is organising the workshop and the World Health Organisation (WHO) is sponsoring it.

Surgeons, theatre nurses and general medical practitioners from Ghana, Benin, Cameroun, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua Guinea, Sudan, Togo and Uganda are attending.

The course is designed to equip the participants in endemic areas with skills to improve their capacity to manage Buruli Ulcer and its complications.

The training is coming on as a response to key recommendations of the 57th World Health Assembly Resolution on Buruli Ulcer that called on member-states to accelerate efforts to detect and treat the disease at an early stage and to provide training to general medical practitioners to improve surgical skills.

Opening it, Major Quashigah said the disease has been with people for sometime and just recently the number and severity of cases have assumed a higher proportion that calls for a concerted effort to deal with it once and for all.

The West African sub-region, he said, is the most endemic in the world and that the disease was overwhelming to such an extent that effective and efficient management was needed to deal with the high incidence.

In Ghana, he said, recognition of buruli ulcer was an emerging public health threat and that the Ministry of Health has established a national programme under the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to co-ordinate and control research efforts and also link up with outside world in the control of the disease.

"Since then, the response from other affected countries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), donors and research communities has been most encouraging", Major Quashigah said. He said in 2005, total cases recorded was 1,202 of which 51.3 per cent were children less than 15 years, adding that there are over 2,000 cases of buruli ulcer patients at various stages awaiting surgery in Ghana.

Major Quashigah said, "I think a similar situation exist in other sister countries. The task is huge, resources are few yet we have to control the disease and this is the time to co-ordinate and share our thoughts and efforts".

Dr Joaquim Saweka, WHO Representative in Ghana, in an address read for him said buruli ulcer particularly affects people who live in difficult-to-reach areas and where there is a high level of poverty. He expressed the support of the WHO to work closely with countries on innovative methods to train, deploy and supervise health workers to manage the disease with particular emphasis on the community and at the primary health care level.

Mr Thomas Mensah, General Manager of the Agogo Presbyterian Health Services, said from 2002 to 2005, a total of 283 buruli ulcer cases were treated at a reimbursable cost of 547.8 million cedis at the hospital.

Unfortunately, he said, approximately 254 million cedis out of this amount is yet to be refunded by the government to the hospital, a situation that had persisted for over a year now.

Mr Mensah said apart from the outstanding reimbursement in respect of buruli ulcer treatment, an amount of 274.5 million cedis in respect of expenses on antenatal cases, maternal deliveries and aged also remains unrefunded, thus bringing to 528.5 million cedis the total outstanding reimbursement to the hospital in respect of exempt cases attended to from January to December 2005.

Nana Kwame Akuoko Sarpong, Agogohene, who chaired the function, expressed his gratitude to the organizers of the course and expressed concern about the fact that most conferences, seminars and workshops are held in either Accra or Kumasi at expensive hotels.