Accra, March 26, GNA - Accra Newtown United defeated Lenient International of Kanda, 3-1 in a final game, to win the Tuberculosis (TB) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Awareness football gala at the Wembley Park in Kotobaabi, Accra.
The four-team tournament which included; Ayawaso International FC from Nima and Mamobi United was organised by Afro Global Alliance Ghana and other partners -Aurum Institute and Ghana TB World Network over the weekend.
The gala was organised to commemorate and highlight the 2019 World TB day under the theme; “It is time to end TB”.
The tournament was also used to educate the public on TB and HIV related diseases.
The participating teams as well as the spectators numbering over 100 received free screening for TB and HIV and were advised accordingly.
Speaking at the event, Chief Austin Arinze Obiefuna, Executive Director of Afro Global Alliance Ghana said, the tournament was part of their yearly World TB activities and TB intervention.
He said football was a popular sport in Ghana and so found the need to leverage on it to create awareness for TB and HIV.
He said TB awareness level was not encouraging in Ghana and so the event would continue throughout the year in other areas across the country to create awareness of both diseases and would also test the status of the people as well.
“The event is part of the new strategy we are using to reduce TB, and this is to reach many people, to screen and treat them whether they have been affected or not with the syndrome”, he said.
“Ghana is supposed to be detecting about 45000 TB cases annually but they end of detecting 13000 to 15000 cases, which shows that they are under detecting TB cases, so they are trying to do things differently so that they can find the missing people.
Dr Nii Nortey Hanson-Nortey, Country Director of the Aurum Institute said, it was one of the innovative activities to improve TB case finding in Ghana.
He said, Ghana was among the top 10 countries high disease burden countries in Africa, adding that, an estimated 70000 people have TB and 44000 new cases were recorded every year in Ghana.
He said the country needed to treat TB cases with urgency and that the gala had created the opportunity for the indigenes to know more about the disease.
Dr. Nortey said TB diagnose was free and anybody could go to hospital and clinics diagnoses and treatment.
GNA
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