GBC

To maintain the gains made over the years to reduce measles infections, Ghana is heading towards eliminating the disease and Rubella also known as German measles in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal three target. This amongst other things is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being of all at all ages. There will also be access to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines and vaccines for all, by 2020 in the African Region. Ghana’s immunization programme has achieved a number of successes recording more than 98 percent of immunization coverage during routine and mop up campaigns. Ghana has seen a reduction in confirmed measles and Rubella cases with no documented death from measles since 2003. Polio has also been out of the system since 2008. In the late 1980’s measles was a killer disease in Ghana and ranked second to malaria in disease burden in 1977. But thanks to vaccination, the burden is now reduced and Ghana is on the move to eliminating it. There i…

International Day for disaster reduction was instituted in 1989 and celebrated on every second Wednesday of October. However, it was changed to the 13th of October about two decades ago. The importance of the day is to create awareness on any life disaster risks that may possibly befall us in our day to day activities. Among these disasters includes, environmental pollution, workplace hazards, transportation hazards and natural occurrences. Nonetheless, Ghana as a nation falls below average in all above groupings, in terms of performance standards, as far as the International disaster reduction is concerned. This is because Ghana has achieved little, when we talk about environmental pollution, workplace hazards, transportation hazards and natural occurrences.  Though Ghana still lags behind in reduction of disasters, some commendations should be given to the current Government for the strong fight against illegal mining practices, popularly known as “galamsey”. The initiative may hav…

Ghana is sitting on a time-bomb that could take everybody by surprise. However, we seem not to be serious with the menace staring us in the face. This is not the first time the issue has cropped up but the usual Ghanaian attitude towards serious matters is at play here as the clock ticks. Political vigilantism continuous to bare its teeth at the entire nation, putting the very institutions that hold the land at risk. It all started as political activism, then metamorphosed into vigilantism before graduating into pure criminal action that saw a group of well-built men, entering a court room to free suspects standing trial for another act of violence. The severity of the problem appears not to have caught up with us as yet, thus the lackadaisical attitude towards curbing the menace. During the political season, it is a bit usual to find groups of peoples from different political parties, exchanging words and perhaps engaging in some fisticuffs when the tension mounts to some peak. But,…

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), is a statutory body established under section 51 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011 (Act 815) to provide an independent oversight of the collection, allocation and utilisation of the country’s petroleum revenues. It is mandated to monitor and evaluate compliance with the Act by government and key institutions charged with the responsibility to manage, use and invest petroleum revenues for the benefit of the citizenry. Since its establishment in 2011, PIAC has published seven annual and six semi-annual reports. It held public engagements in all regional capitals and about 100 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies. It also undertook project inspection tours across the country. The Committee made recommendations in its statutory reports which have guided both governmental and corporate policies in the Petroleum Sector. PIAC has discovered a number of anomalies in the management and utilisation of oil and gas re…

Global Handwashing Day is observed on the 15th October each year. The international handwashing day is one of the United Nation’s critical health promotion observations. The Day is used to motivate and mobilise people around the world to improve their handwashing habits. The Global Handwashing Partnership formerly called “Public Private Partnership for Handwashing,” established Global Handwashing Day in 2008 to promote a global and local vision of handwashing with soap. Washing hands at critical points during the day and washing with soap are both important. The campaign raises awareness about handwashing with soap as a key factor in disease prevention. The significance of handwashing cannot be over emphasised, due to its benefits to disease prevention. According to health experts, respiratory and intestinal diseases can be reduced by 25-50 percent if hand washing is taken seriously. Though, no one will deliberately infest his or her hands with bacteria, it is vital for the hand to b…

It is exactly one year this month when the very horrific fire occurred at the Atomic Junction on the 7th of October, 2017 killing about seven persons and injuring over 130 people. Before the Atomic Junction incident we had the Trade Fair fire in Accra, the Tema medical stores among others. Apart from fuel stations disasters, many domestic dwellings and workplace fires were also recorded. On the 7th of this month which marks the exact one year anniversary of the Atomic junction incident, another disaster has befallen us. A whole Ashanti Regional Education Directorate in Kumasi was on fire. The severe outbreak reportedly burnt to ashes valuable documents, office gadgets, furniture and stationery. With the frequent outbreaks, one wonders what is wrong as far as fire safety education and awareness are concerned. It is important for the Ghana National Fire Service to be resourced to do more than it is doing presently to help reduce fire outbreaks. What has been the performance of the Nati…