KNUST Pharmacy Students Launch National Safety Health Campaign In The Eastern Region

The indiscriminate sale, purchase and use of drugs, cosmetics and other potentially harmful products had been on the rise. This practice had led to many health’s related problems such as intolerance to certain medication, tropical and systematic disorders, and resistance to certain antibiotics and anti malarial and fatal adverse reactions. This can be attributed in part to the proliferation of media adverts about such products on the market despite the Food and Drugs Board’s (FDB) painstaking effort to stem out this canker.

It is against this backdrop that the Ghana Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (GPSA) and Ghana Herbal Medical students’ Association (GHEMSA) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have taken upon themselves as a social duty; to annually undertake health educational campaigns to address issues of drugs and health related problems peculiar to a particular region chosen by the association and its stakeholders.

Over the past thirty-four years, GPSA has embarked on such socially centered educational campaigns in various regions of Ghana with the last two editions taken place at the Northern and Central regions respectively. Eastern region won the bid for this year’s national drug safety and health campaign celebrations. To this effect, the Eastern Regional co-ordinating council organized a solemn occasion to welcome them into the region.

The Eastern Regional Minister, who was also the special guest for the occasion, hon. Kwadwo Affram Asiedu speaking on this years chosen theme: “Creating national wealth through life style and National drug use” said, the theme was very appropriate as it was tied in the development agenda of Government. He mentioned that, the three thematic areas of the current development agenda are human resource development, promotion of the private sector and good Governance, adding that, the health of citizens in the creation and utilization of national wealth was very crucial.

Hon. Affram Asiedu commended the Association but however, advised that these types of programmes should not end with the students’ completion of school, “when you have obtained the ultimate which is your degree, remember that, the job ahead is equally daunting and continue to carry the torch you have lit while in school. This is the only way society will benefit from this effort”, he stressed.

The Municipal Chief Executive of the New Juabeng Municipal Assembly, Hon. Nana Adjei Boateng said, environmental issues are included in the campaign to educate the public on the need to keep their environment clean. He said, if people were practicing preventive measures, most of the diseases reported in the hospitals could have been prevented. He therefore, appealed to the people of the Municipality to observe personal hygiene to keep the environment clean.

The President of the KNUST Ghana Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (GPSA), Cyprus Baidoo presenting the summary of the programme said, the programme would start off with postings of units of 10-15 students to each to the district of the region to embark on the campaign. He said, the campaign would start each day with visitation to schools in the mornings, workplaces in the afternoons and the communities in the evening. “Churches and Mosques will not be left out on weekends. Specials sections will be held for traditional and opinion leaders as well” he highlighted.

He said, the campaign would end with a mass health walk dubbed “walk for health” through the principal streets of Koforidua and a dinner at the regional administration to present findings and report made in the exercise. He said, 170 participants including 21 foreign students on exchange programme in the country from various Universities across Europe and North America were ready to go out on the exercise.

Cyprus Baidoo said sponsorship was a major challenge the programme faced in the planning stages. He therefore thanked all corporate bodies which contributed to see this year’s campaign come off and appealed to more company’s to come on board.