Class of ’98 of the UGMS to hold Symposium on NCDs

The Class of 1998-year group of the University of Ghana Medical School, now School of Medicine and Dentistry, will from Monday June 18th to Sunday, June, 24, organise series of programmes to mark their 20th anniversary and support for the school.

Activities lined up will include awareness creation on the double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases in the country, a symposium, dinner and awards ceremony and a thanksgiving service.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Friday, Dr Gabriel Ganyaglo, Coordinator of the Planning Committee said “Our efforts after 20 years of graduation are to compliment what other stakeholders have done in the health care delivery system, and also give back to society”.

He explained that the Class of ’98 alumni both home and abroad will hold media engagements to sensitise the public on Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases, which had become a major health concern for all.

The group will also commission two summer huts constructed by the Class at the Medical Students’ Hostel.

He said the ’98 alumni will on Friday, June 22, hold a symposium on the theme: ‘The Double Burden of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases: A Call to Action’ at the Charles Easmon Hall, College of Health Sciences, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and invited the general public to participate.

Speakers at the symposium will include, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Dr Henry Nagai, Dr. Stephen Ayisi-Addo, Dr Joseph Yeboah, and Dr Samuel Seidu.

Dr Ganyaglo explained that the top 10 leading causes of death in Ghana, according to the world life expectancy.com, included heart diseases, hypertension, Stroke, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Liver disease, HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, Road traffic accidents and Diarrheal diseases.

These top 10 killers in Ghana have been categorised as communicable and non-communicable, hence, the theme.

“As a lower middle income country, Ghana is not yet out of the woods as regards communicable diseases, but has equally recorded a huge upsurge of non-communicable diseases,” he added.

The group will on Friday evening, hold dinner and awards night at the Africa Regent Hotel to honour former lecturers and acknowledge their hard work.

A beach party for members and their families will be held at the La beach on Saturday June 23rd to fraternise and have fun and crown it all with a thanksgiving service at the Korle Bu Community Chapel also known as Accra Chapel on Sunday, June 24, 2018.