Analyzing Healthcare Problems and Health Trends in Ghana

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the healthcare landscape in Ghana. It begins by outlining the nation's vision for middle-income status and the associated health challenges, including poverty and limited access to essential services. The report then delves into specific health issues, focusing on malaria and stroke, examining their historical context and impact. It analyzes Ghana's position on global health indicators, such as under-five mortality and maternal mortality, highlighting both challenges and improvements. The report emphasizes the role of climate-related factors in disease transmission and discusses the government's strategies, such as the Roll Back Malaria initiative. The analysis covers the impact of stroke, including mortality rates and the influence of environmental factors like heat and drought. The study concludes by acknowledging Ghana's progress while recognizing the significant work still needed to improve health outcomes and healthcare infrastructure. The report references various studies and reports from organizations like WHO, Red Cross, and IFRC to support its findings and provides a nuanced understanding of Ghana's healthcare situation.

Running Head: Health care 1
Health care

Health care 2
Introduction:
The government of Ghana frames the vision to change the country into the middle-income
country by the year 2015. This target is considered as biggest ambition of the country in which
almost quarter of the population of the country is facing the issue of poverty, where diseases are
the part of the life, and almost 50% populations of the country does not have access to basic
facilities such as safe water or better sanitation. Therefore this country requires strong vision and
commitment along with the sufficient resources.
National health policy of Ghana states Creating Wealth through Health, and it was designed for
the purpose of supporting the ambitious vision of the nation. This policy states that ill health can
be considered both reason as well as result of the poverty, and it also considered the effect of
environmental factors on the health of the people. It must be noted that health policy farmed by
the government was implemented through the Health Service Medium Term Development Plans
(HSMTDPs) and Programs of Work (POW) (Internations, n.d.). This paper states various factors
related to health issues in Ghana such as first section of the essay states the health problems
faced by Ghana, section 2 states the historical factors of key health events and for this purpose
we choose Malaria and Stroke, and section 3 analyze the position of the country in the world by
using different health indicators. Lastly paper is concluded with brief conclusion.
Health issues face by Ghana:
In 1957, Ghana becomes the first sub-Saharan African country which attains its national
independence. This country is considered as the country which has strong political dynamics,
and it also has high level of democracy (Commonwealth Health Online, 2017)..
Ghana’s problems in terms of healthcare and health infrastructure are very serious in nature. In
this context nation decided to adopt the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) derived from

Health care 3
the 2000 UN Millennium Declaration, and for this purpose various steps are taken by the
government. Ghana decided to accomplish various goals related to health.
As per the report of World Health Organization, there are some common diseases in Ghana such
as malaria, HIV, Chlorea, anthrax, etc. . However, some other diseases are also there such as
dracunculiasis, dysentery, river blindness or onchocerciasis, pneumonia, dehydration, venereal
diseases, and poliomyelitis (Country studies, n.d.).
As per the report issued by WHO in 1994, malaria and measles were the main reason of
premature death in Ghana. In the same year almost 70 % children aged under five were died
because of the infection which was emerged because of malnutrition. Report published by WHO
in 2011 states that malaria was the main reason of morbidity, and almost 32.5% people were
admitted to Ghanaian medical facilities because of the malaria (Ghana News Agency,
2011;UNAIDS, 2017).
As per the report published by WHO in 2017, almost 4,319,919 cases related to malaria are
reported and from these cases reported deaths were 2137. These numbers includes those cases
which are reported by the health facility. Number related to estimated cases of malaria by WHO
are high, as it includes 7,300,000 cases of malaria and estimated deaths are 13000 (WHO, 2017).
As per the report issued by Red Cross in 2012, in recent years child health care and life
expectancy of adult have been improved. Currently, mortality rate under Ghana for under five is
69 per 1,000 live births, and life expectancy in case of adult is 64.2 years. Ghana face severe
issues in context of basic health care, water and sanitation, and the majority population of this
country is suffered from the impact of inequitable distribution of access to basic health services,
education, and electricity (IFRC, 2012).

Health care 4
The most affected group in Ghana is group of older population of LMICs, as large proportion of
this group is facing the risk of transmitted diseases because of the faecal-oral route, and it
specially includes those who are living in rural areas. As per one study of SAGE almost 84.7%
respondents had access to the drinking water of improved quality and majority resides in urban
area, and only 15% respondents reported that they have improved sanitation and this time again
majority resides in urban area.
It must be noted that distribution in context of these health detriments is also related to income of
the people, which means those who have lower income have less health facilities and those who
have higher income have high access to these facilities. There are number of inadequacies which
are related to the access to sources of improved water and sanitation, and sanitation is really the
big problem, especially in rural areas because in this majority of the older people live. This study
further stated that burden of providing best quality of water for the household relied on female
adults and children of the families, and it must be noted that this mainly depends on the factor
related t income of the family and whether household was located in urban or rural area
(Biritwum, 2013).
Health trends in Ghana:
Malaria:
Malaria is considered as most dangerous disease, and from this disease almost 1 million people
died every year and it affect almost half billion people globally (Keba Africa, 2012). In Ghana,
malaria is considered as major cause of poverty and low productivity which accounted almost
32.5% of all OPD attendances and 48.8% admission of children under 5 years in the country.

Health care 5
In coastal cities of Ghana, malaria is circulated because of the climate-related factors such as
flooding and warmer climate. In case of Malaria transmission, environmental conditions play
very important role such as mosquitoes adapting to breed in non-traditional locations such as
blocked drains of surface. It must be noted that involvement of community and institutional for
clearing the environment from potential mosquito breeding sites, associated with health
education and improved malaria control programs are critical for reducing the incidences of
malaria.
Experts estimated that between the period of 2020-2080, it is anticipated that season of malaria
transmission (may-July) will shift by 1-2 months because of shift occurred in peak patters of
rainfall. However, it is also predicted by experts that cases of malaria will be decreased with the
reduced rainfall and temperatures above 350C, such conditions result in difficult breeding for
those mosquitoes which transmitted malaria (Amekudzi, 2014). After considering all these
serious issues Ghana enrolled itself to the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) initiative in 1999, and also
create a strategic framework which guided its implementation. For the purpose of achieving the
goal Ghana ensures four strategies:
 Improvement in partnership with all the partners at each and every level.
 Ensure improvement in the management of malaria cases at all the levels, which means
from household to health facility.
 Government try to encourage the evidence based research which result in effective
interventions.
 Government of Ghana promotes the various preventions such as promotion of usage of
treated bed nets, chemoprophylaxis in pregnancy, and environmental management
(Ghana Health services, n.d.).

Health care 6
Stroke:
Stroke is considered as second largest disease which causes death in adults and it is considered as
the major contributor to disability and reduced quality of life. A study shows that stroke is the
major cause of death in those countries which have low income graph, and almost 87% of all
deaths because of stroke occurred in these countries.
In Ghana, Stroke result in almost 9.1% of total medical adult admissions, and almost 13.2% of
all medical adult deaths within the period of 1 year. The estimated age of patient of stroke was
63.7 (95% ci=62.8, 64.57) years. Males live more life as compared to females, because overall
male to female ratio was 1:0.96. It must be noted that risk related to age adjusted from stroke was
lower in females as compared to males. Fatality rate in stroke cases was 5.7% at 24 hours, 32.7%
at 7 days, and 43.2% at 28 days (Agyeman & Nkum, 2012).
Extreme events of heat can also have a direct impact on health which also causes heat stress.
Lengthy exposures in context of high temperatures result in heat strokes and these strokes can
also cause death of the person. In Ghana, there is a direct relation between the high temperatures
and mortality rate because of stroke. Drought conditions in Ghana also affect the stroke because
availability and quality of water reduced which also result in increased cases of Stroke (Coumu,
2016).
Position of Ghana at health indicators:
The countries of the African Region face number of health issues which are severe in nature, and
for dealing with these issues it is necessary to have efficient management of health information
for the purpose of ensuring a complete and accurate response which help in promoting the health
of the population. As per the recommendation given by Ouagadougou and Algiers in 2008, the
WHO Africa Regional Office (WHO/AFRO) has implemented an African Health Observatory

Health care 7
and real-time Strategic Information System (AHO & RSIS), and both the organizations are
operational since 2011. The major role played by African Health Observatory besides helping
countries of the WHO/AFRO implement health observatories (WHO, 2017).
As stated above, Ghana adopted the goals set by MGD and takes various actions to achieve these
goals. MGD stated various targets and one of the target stated by MGD is reduction in the rate of
under-five mortality by 2-3rd from 1990-2015. In 1990, average rate in respect of all the
developing countries was 99 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2013, rates had been reduced to 50
or about half the 1990 rate. This progress was considered as big achievement by developing
countries, but situations are different at present time because developing countries as whole fail
to meet the target stated y MGD. Despite of rapid improvements from 2000, morality rate of
children under-five are high in Ghana as compared to other countries of the world (World
Development indicators, 2015).
Another issue which can be measured at health indicators is maternal deaths, in this there is lot of
risk in pregnancy and delivery. Almost 800 women’s lose their life while delivering the child or
after the delivery of the child. In 2013, almost 289,000 women’s were dies in maternal death in
the world and 99% cases happened in developing countries.
Almost half deaths occurred in Sub- Saharan Africa (Ghana) and almost quarter in South Asia.
Ghana achieved good result in reducing the maternal mortality ratio. In this country maternal
deaths are twice as compared to South Asia, and the maternal mortality rate dropped to almost
50% which was considered big success.

Health care 8
After considering the above facts, it can be said that situation of Ghana as compared to other
countries are still very poor in context of health indicators, but still country shows great
improvement. However, there is long road which Ghana has to walk.
Conclusion:
Ghana’s problems in terms of healthcare and health infrastructure are very serious in nature. In
this context nation decided to adopt the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) derived from
the 2000 UN Millennium Declaration, and for this purpose various steps are taken by the
government. In coastal cities of Ghana, malaria is circulated because of the climate-related
factors such as flooding and warmer climate. On the other hand, stroke is considered as second
major reason of death in Ghana. In Ghana, there is a direct relation between the high
temperatures and mortality rate because of stroke. Drought conditions in Ghana also affect the
stroke because availability and quality of water reduced which also result in increased cases of
Stroke. It can be said that Ghana as compared to other countries are still very poor in context of
health indicators, but still country shows great improvement.
References:

Health care 9
Agyemang, C. & Nkum, B. (2012). Stroke in Ashanti Region of Ghana. Available at:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3645146/. Accessed on 9th November 2017.
Amekudzi, L. (2014). The impact of climate change on malaria in coastal Ghana. Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280087746_The_impact_of_climate_change_on_malar
ia_in_coastal_Ghana. Accessed on 9th November 2017.
Biritwum R, Mensah G, Yawson A, Minicuci N (2013). Study on Global AGEing and adult
health (SAGE) Wave 1: the Ghana national report. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Available at: apps.who.int/healthinfo/systems/surveydata/ index.php/catalog/6/download/1940.
accessed 9th November 2017.
Commonwealth Health Online, (2017). Current health issues and progress in Ghana. Available
at:
http://www.commonwealthhealth.org/africa/ghana/current_health_issues_and_progress_in_ghan
a/. Accessed on 9th November 2017.
Coumu, D. (2016). Climate change impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa: from physical changes to
their social repercussions. Available at: http://climateanalytics.org/files/ssa_final_published.pdf.
Accessed on 9th November 2017.
Country studies. Health and Welfare. Available at: http://countrystudies.us/ghana/54.htm.
Accessed on 9th November 2017.
Ghana Health services. National Malaria Control Programme. Available at:
http://www.ghanahealthservice.org/ghs-subcategory.php?cid=4&scid=41. Accessed on 9th
November 2017.
Ghana News Agency, (2011). Malaria Bites Into Economic Development. Available at:
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/details/Health/MALARIA-BITES-INTO-ECONOMIC-
DEVELOPMENT/?ci=1&ai=27413. Accessed on 9th November 2017.
IFRC, (2012). Business models for health service delivery in Ghana Red Cross. Available at:
http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Documents/Secretariat/201505/1233300-Ghana%20Red%20Cross
%20Case%20Study.pdf. Accessed on 9th November 2017.
Internations. Health Issues and Healthcare in Ghana. Available at:
https://www.internations.org/ghana-expats/guide/living-in-ghana-15779/health-issues-and-
healthcare-in-ghana-2. Accessed on 9th November 2017.
Keba Africa, (2012). Malaria Prevention. Available at: http://www.kebaafrica.org/malaria-
prevention-2/. Accessed on 9th November 2017.
UNAIDS, (2017). Ghana. Available at:
http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/ghana/. Accessed on 9th November 2017.
WHO, (2017). Ghana Holds Sixth National Annual Newborn Stakeholders Conference.
Available at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/126341/1/9789241507332_eng.pdf.
Accessed on 9th November 2017.

Health care 10
WHO, (2017). Ghana. Available at:
http://www.who.int/malaria/publications/country-profiles/profile_gha_en.pdf?ua=1. Accessed on
9th November 2017.
World Bank Group, (2015). World Development Indicators. Available at:
https://www.google.co.in/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjJ0drJirHXAhW
Fqo8KHXw3ADEQFghJMAg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fopenknowledge.worldbank.org
%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle
%2F10986%2F21634%2F9781464804403.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0iCBoGNBJv8swfp_KcFIyT.
Accessed on 9th November 2017.