Tony Asare (left) presenting a dummy cheque to Dr Emmanuel Ameyaw
President of the Rotary Club of Accra-Ring Road Central, Tony Asare, has presented a cheque of GH¢20,500 on behalf of the Accra-Ring Road Central branch and Rotary Club of Hoppers Crossing in Australia to the Ghana Society of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (GSPED) at a health workshop in Kumasi recently.
The funds would be used to support the training of doctors and nurses in paediatric endocrinology and diabetes in Ghana.
Presenting the cheque, Mr Asare indicated that Rotary International is a service organisation made up of professionals who focus on child and maternal health, education, sanitation, among many other concerns, in their communities.
Speaking at the workshop, Dr Emmanuel Ameyaw, a paediatric endocrinologist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), stated that GSPED had observed that it is a common practice in Ghana that children and adolescents with endocrine disorders are misdiagnosed and mismanaged.
He added that almost all patients with Type-1 diabetes, which is seen in their clinics, are treated solely with oral hypoglycaemic agents by their primary doctors.
Considering the enormous work in paediatric endocrinology in Ghana and lack of knowledge among health practitioners, poor health infrastructure, coupled with patients’ attitude and belief towards endocrine disorders, Dr Ameyaw and his group of doctors started the Ghana Society of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (GSPED). The membership consists of two paediatric endocrinologists, two regular nurses in the clinic and some educated parents. The core aims of GSPED are education, advocacy and research.
Receiving the cheque on behalf of the GSPED, Dr Ameyaw mentioned that the organisation decided to do update courses for health workers in Ghana in paediatric diabetes and other endocrine disorders in 2015.
He indicated that they appealed to banks and many pharmaceutical companies for help, but none supported them. Eventually, GSPED went ahead with very little funds to organise one of the most successful conferences in Ghana in paediatric diabetes.
Subsequently, the Rotary Club of Accra-Ring Road Central and Rotary Club of Hoppers Crossing supported it (GSPED) in 2016 for a two-day seminar, following it with another one this year.
The diabetes workshop attracted a total of 228 participants drawn from across the country, made up of 128 medical doctors, 80 physician assistants, 14 nurses, two midwives, two pharmacists, one biomedical scientist and a physiotherapist.
Dr Ameyaw also received a ‘Service-Above-Self’ crystal from the Rotary Club of Accra-Ring Road Central for his continued dedication to the treatment of paediatric endocrinology and diabetes in Ghana.
Diabetes & Endocrinology
Diabetes is a disease in which one’s body is unable to properly use and store glucose (a form of sugar). The specific causes of diabetes depend on the type of diabetes that one is diagnosed with.
Endocrinology focuses primarily on the endocrine organs, or those organs that may cause a ‘hormone imbalance.’ These organs include the pituitary, thyroid, adrenals, ovaries, testes and pancreas.