TB: Superstition Still A Barrier To Free Cure In Upper East

Despite available treatment for tuberculosis— and with no charge attached— there are still traces of the disease in the Upper East Region, partly due to superstition. 

Failure to adhere to full medication also accounts for half-cured patients needlessly dying from the disease and spreading the germs—bacilli.

The false notion, which is common amongst the untaught in the countryside, is a steel-strong barrier to efforts being made to totally eradicate TB in the region. There, TB’s main trademark — a prolonged cough— is rather believed to be a curse ‘from beyond’ or said to be a traditionally known mystery cough exchanged during lovemaking. 

Orthodox medication is never the way to go, they zealously say. The answer, they affirm, resides in the ways of old: a shrine where the seeker of cure is told the TB germs can only be subdued by bringing to the gods a black cock, a black goat— and, at times, a locally brewed beer. 

Experts are of a strong view that the region still habours more unreported cases than are recorded in a year. Only last year, the Builsa District topped the regional TB register with 37 reported cases.

“I don’t see how TB can be cured from a black cock or a black goat,” said Mr. Alagskomah Asakeya Noble—who, mystified and amused, smiled over the items in what he just said. 

Mr. Alagskomah, a Principal Pharmacy Technologist and Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, expressed his bewilderment when he chaired the launching of a project to stop TB in the region by mobilising and strengthening civil society organisations (CSOs) and TB-affected people to demand accountability from duty bearers. 

Two organisations, Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment Ghana (RISE-Ghana) and Stop TB Partnership, joined hands to launch the project with funds from Challenge Facility for Civic Society. The launching of the project also heralded a training workshop on new tools and knowledge in TB, MDR-TB (Multi-Drug Resistant TB) and HIV-TB (Human Immuno-deficiency Virus TB) response for community leaders and CSO actors.

Paramount Chief of Bongo, 3rd from left

The Paramount Chief of Bongo, Bonaba Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyaarum, launched the project saying traditional leaders owed the responsibility to disseminate the “ABC information on TB” to ensure total eradication in the entire country. He pointed at intense sensitisation as a major measure by which more people could be rescued from the cage of superstition which is still fanning the dying flame of TB. 

Welcoming participants, the Project Manager for RISE-Ghana, Mr. Awal Ahmed, said TB was capable of negating Ghana’s efforts at attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He noted that, much as TB and HIV/AIDS reduced productivity, poverty could be halved if affected people found the right cure—and at the right time. 

“RISE-Ghana works with rights holders and poor people’s movements to build their capacity to advance their rights and sustain their environment. We exist to ensure a world in which human rights and environmental sustainability inform all actions to empower people to live in dignity,” said Mr. Ahmed.

The event also saw the Upper East Regional TB and HIV Control Programme, Mr. Samuel Angyogdem, enumerate a number of TB risk factors. They included: close contact with TB patients not on treatment, low immune status, diabetes mellitus, peptic ulcer, malnutrition, tobacco use and excessive alcoholism, exposure to dust and mining areas where the lungs easily become weak. 

TB symptoms, according to him, comprise constant tiredness, fever, cough, weight loss, night sweat, loss of appetite, spit of blood and chest pain. 

TB, he said, could be prevented through knowing the signs and symptoms, knowing the medical risk factors for TB, TB sputum test, TB medicines, proper ventilation and healthy lifestyles.

Story by Edward Adeti