Okyeame Kwame
Renowned hiplife artiste, Okyeame Kwame, will host this year’s edition of his annual hepatitis B free screening exercise and health walk this Saturday, July 23, at Silver Star Towers in Accra from 6am.
The event, which is being organised by Okyeame Kwame Foundation (OKF) in partnership with MDS-Lancet Laboratory and with support from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), is aimed at creating public awareness about the disease.
Apart from the screening and vaccination for over 1,000 people, there will also be health walk and aerobics. Participants would receive free medical counselling at the event.
The walk will start at Silver Star Towers, through Airport and Aviation and a return to the Silver Star Towers.
This year’s event is on the theme: “Bringing hepatitis care closer to communities – Hep can’t wait.”
Okyeame Kwame, who is also known as Rap Doctor, said the screening exercise is being organised to mark this year’s World Hepatitis B Day which falls on Thursday, July 28.
The event has the support of benevolent organisations and individuals such as the KPMG, Silver Star Towers, MDS-Lancet Laboratory, Japan Motors among others.
According to him, this year, the primary focus of his foundation, Okyeame Kwame Foundation (OKF), is to raise awareness and education about hepatitis B.
He stressed that hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening blood-borne disease of the liver, which is transmitted primarily by sexual activity or exposure to blood. About 20 per cent of those infected progress to develop chronic liver disease.
He, however, advised Ghanaian youth to take hepatitis B screening very seriously “because the hepatitis B is a preventable disease. So they shouldn’t fear when coming to screen.”
With over a decade of providing education campaign and free screening of hepatitis B to Ghanaians, Okyeame Kwame and his foundation have screened over 45,000 Ghanaians.
By George Clifford Owusu