The Acting Country Director for Aurum Institute, Ms. Jabina Anaman has called on the government of the Republic of Ghana to make a conscious effort to increase the funding of health issues in the country.
According to her, one of the biggest challenges in Ghana has to do with the funding of health issues. “As a country, most of our funds are donor depending on and so, if donors do not provide the funding, there would be a challenge.”
Ms. Anaman said, if the government is committed to funding health programmes in the country and the fund is not made available, it is the general population that suffers.
She made this statement during a day workshop on the Resents Dissemination and Closeout of the Impact 4 TB event held in Accra.
Impact 4 TB medications were brought into the country by Aurum Institute as a project not for treatment but rather, for the prevention of TB disease.
The medications according to Ms. Anaman, were specifically brought into the country for people with HIV whose immunity is down and who can easily get the TB disease.
She added that the project further ensures that the medications were given to people who have come in close contact with those living with TB.
“As a programme, we are not saying that Ghana is not having a TB preventive medicine. There was already TB prevention medicine in the country but, it was taken every day for about six months or nine months depending on how the doctor would diagnose and your condition. But what we brought in was a three months medication and is taking once a week called ‘3HP’.”
“That is, a combination of two different medications. That is, you will take it once a week for three months. So, in a whole three months, you will just take 12 times and it helps you and protect you from developing the disease.”
The project she indicated, started in 2017 and, they were able to work with the National TB Control Programme and the AIDS Control programme, to understand their systems and structure.
Further more, they worked with the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health of which the project went on well due to the extensive cooperation given to them.
She further disclosed that the facilities and health workers used for the project, were that of the Ghana Health Service and they provided medications and resources to support.
The project according to Ms. Anaman used 12 hospitals in 4 Regions and organized training programmes as well as understanding how it is giving likewise, what they should look out for when the medicine is given.
She said a target was set up to give medications to 9,000 people which were able to achieve to make the project a success.
On her part, the Monitory and Evaluation Manager of Aurum, Mr. Dziedzom Awalime said since the introduction of the programme, Aurum Institute has been able to train 300 health personnel, done 317 household contracts with 157 clients and 6043 , are generic because of the cost. The 3HP which cost 72 dollars now costs 14.25.
The Aurum Institute is a proudly African organisation working to advance health science
and innovation to create a healthier world for future generations to partner with governments and the private sector and civil society to design and deliver high-quality care and treatment to people in developing communities.