Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Campaign Launched

Dr Vida Obese (second from right), with Colonel Guy Deacon and other stakeholders at the press launch

The Anidaso Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (APDF) in partnership with Parkinson’s Africa (PA) has launched an awareness campaign on Parkinson’s Disease (PD) in Accra.

The three-day campaign, which commenced on June 1 is in collaboration with Colonel Guy Deacon, a retired British Colonel, CBE, who was diagnosed with the disease for the past 11 years.

PD is the second most common neurological disorder in the world, and it is currently the fastest growing, with cases across Africa expected to rise dramatically in the coming years.

On April 11, 2022 (known globally as World Parkinson’s Day), Col. Deacon embarked on a “Freetown to Cape Town” journey that started in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and it will take him through Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Angola, Namibia and, ultimately, Cape Town, South Africa.

He will meet with people with Parkinson’s, neurologists and health leaders in each of these countries and visit some Parkinson’s projects that are growing across the continent.

Founder of Anidaso Parkinsons Disease Foundation and Specialist Physician-Neurology, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Dr Vida Obese said the disease is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that affects the part of the brain that controls movement.

Many other functions, including mood, memory, cognition and sleep are also impacted.

She indicated that though formal prevalent studies have not been done, ‘we know it forms 12 per cent of diseases reported at the Neurology Clinics in our four major hospitals in Ghana’.

Dr. Obese explained that as the disease progresses, the affected person’s ability to move and function independently becomes severely impacted, rendering them partially or wholly reliant on family, relatives and caregivers.

Across the world, neurological disorders, like PD, are now the leading cause of disability as cases continue to rise across Ghana, and Africa.

She thus urged the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to consider including medication PD on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to ease the financial burden on patients.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri