Donewell Launches Public Health Lectures

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, 07 March 2007
Donewell Insurance Company Limited has launched a Public Health Lecture Series in Accra.

The event which was co-sponsored by Kenya Airways and Golden Tulip will be held every three months.

The campaign dubbed "Healthy Living for a Longer Life" is an attempt by Donewell Insurance to complement government’s effort to ensure quality health for the people.

Speaking on the topic "Health Nutrition", Professor Agyemang Badu Akosah, outgoing Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, said "nutrition is more important in the health sector than any other drug."

He said it was important for pregnant women to follow strict nutritional programmes.

"Every pregnant woman should be medicinal sound. A lot of non-communicable diseases are on our hands now, all because of maternal health," he said.

"Maternal health is the most important thing. Certain cultural practices which impede these programmes should be discarded straight away."

He said currently, one out of every three adults is hypertensive while one out of every twelve adults is diabetic as a result of "the unhealthy lifestyles, we live including the food we eat."

"You have to moderate yourself in the food you eat because you eat to live and not the vice-versa.

"Every food in Ghana is good. The only problem is the proportion that is taken by the individual. You do not have to fill your tummy for the sake of eating."

He advised against excessive use of alcohol and called for total boycott of smoking saying, "I am not a foe of anybody. Smoking simply destroys the body."

He also urged the public to do regular exercise since "lack of exercise of the body is ill health, while exercise is key to quality health."

Mr Victor Larbi, Managing Director of Donewell Insurance said, "the public campaign would be sustained for every body to see the essence of living a healthy lifestyle".

Mr J.S. Addo, a former Governor of Bank of Ghana who chaired the function urged the education sector to do more to create awareness on public health.