ABSTRACT Pneumococcal diseases are responsible for killing at least one million children under the age of five every year: over 70% of these deaths are in developing countries. This total is greater than that due to malaria, AIDS and measles combined. Streptococcus pneumoniae has over 90 serotypes, out of which eight are included in the 10-valent Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (Synflorix) currently in use in Kenya. Pneumococci are highly diverse and serotype prevalence is dynamic based on age...
ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Over the years, medical care has become more complex, making complete patient medical history not accessible in certain situations. The quest for comprehensive medical history of patients for the purpose of continuity of care brought about the evolution of storing patient information electronically. Previous health information plays a critical role in the proper diagnosis and treatment of patients. Therefore, there should be an efficient information management system i...
ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of substance use, the age of first substance use and factors the influence the use among Junior High school pupils in the Dangme West District. Stratified random sampling of 366 JHS pupils within the eight education circuit areas in the district completed structured questionnaires. Four focus group discussions were carried out with two groups of girls and two groups of boys and five key informants interviewed on substance use. A...
ABSTRACT Background: School age children are faced with various forms of sensory disorders which impair academic, social and functional development. One of the most prevalent forms of sensory disorder is hearing loss. Auditory screening serves as an important process in identifying children with undetected hearing loss. The use of pure-tone audiometry has been the back bone of assessing children. In Ghana, auditory screening of school children has not been efficient due largely to the scarci...
ABSTRACT Under-five mortality in developing countries is a major problem. Vaccine preventable disease like measles, tuberculosis, pertusis and tetanus account for a significant proportion. Ghana has therefore set herself the aim of achieving herd immunity for these diseases. The District Health Manager Teams have been provided with resources to enable this noble aim to be achieved and the Kintampo District is no exception. This study assesses the immunisation coverage of the Kintampo subdist...
ABSTRACT Background :Inadequate breastfeeding of infants leads to poor nutrition among them, which adversely affect their development. The perception that breast milk alone is insufficient for growth and development of infants presents a major challenge to the practice of exclusive breastfeeding for six months by nursing mothers. Objective: To assess the effect of mothers perception of insufficient breast milk as insufficient food on exclusive breast feeding among mothers of infants aged 6-...
ABSTRACT Entrepreneurship in nursing and midwifery is not a new concept. It thus offers selfemployment opportunities for nurses and midwives to pursue their passion and improve health outcomes. In view of the current increasing unemployment rate among nurses and midwives in the country, entrepreneurship offers some solutions. However, very few nurses and midwives are engaged in health-related entrepreneurial activities and empirical evidence is limited, providing a significant gap in the lit...
ABSTRACT The expression and management of postoperative pain (POP) is influenced by multiple factors. The purpose of this study was to explore factors influencing pain expression and management among postoperative patients at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. The study employed a qualitative explorative descriptive design and it was guided by the Social Communication Model of Pain. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants into the study. Data saturation was attained after in...
ABSTRACT Background: Children with cleft lip/palate suffer major functional morbidity such as restricted maxillofacial growth, speech anomalies, swallowing and feeding difficulties, hearing impairment/or recurrent ear infections. Cleft lip/palate are generally not lifethreatening, living with cleft evokes a notable health burden. Objective: To assess the awareness and knowledge of pregnant women attending Mamprobi polyclinic on cleft lip and or palate. Methods: A cross-sectional study desig...
ABSTRACT An investigation was carried out to determine the nutritional composition of some selected dominant aquatic plants and their significant effect on chemical and physical characteristics of the water. Four aquatic plants namely Nymphaea lotus, Ipomoea aquatica, Typha ausralis. and Scirpus cubensis were sampled, identified and authenticated at the Ghana Herbarium. The proximate nutritional compositions of the plants were determined using standard procedure outlined in Association of Of...
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Malaria is a major public health threat to AngloGold Ashanti‟s operations, largely responsible for lower productivity and high expenditure on treatments. Morbidity and mortality is also known to be high in young children and pregnant women in the locality. In an effort to lessen the malaria burden on its operations, the company in 2005 introduced a 3-year malaria control programme that uses multiple approaches in what has now become known as the „Obuasi Model‟. The...
ABSTRACT Introduction “Emergency contraception (EC), or post-coital contraception is the method of contraception that can be used to prevent pregnancy in the first 5 days after sexual intercourse”. Unprotected sexual intercourse leads to unwanted pregnancies, resulting in abortions, abortion-related complications, and other health problems. The study considered the perception and use of EC among the female youth of Chorkor to help inform contraceptive policy and use. A descriptive cross...
ABSTRACT Shoreline change analysis provides important information upon which most coastal zone management and intervention policies rely. Such information is however mostly scarce for very large and inaccessible shorelines mostly due to expensive field work. This study investigated the reliability of medium resolution satellite imagery for mapping shoreline positions and for estimating historic rate of change. Both manual and semi-automatic shoreline extraction methods for multi-spectral sat...
ABSTRACT Background: Home visit is a strategy used to reach out to members of a household for discussion and provision of health services by Community Health Officers. This approach is mostly used in deprived communities to provide health services at the doorstep of community members. Not much is known about this strategy in the public health sector. From the review of literature, malaria forms a significant proportion of diseases in most of the Out-Patient Departments. There are also a sign...
ABSTRACT Background: Power relations among district health managers border on which district health manager has formal as well as any informal powers to do what, and to what extent, and the manifestation of power among these managers. A healthy relationship between health institutions at the district level is dependent on the clarity of formal and informal rules governing the arrangements of these healthcare institutions. These rules translate into the power structure for district health man...