The Asante-Mampong District Hospital has started a diet-related clinic as part of an initiative to help bring down the rising incidence of lifestyle diseases like hypertension and diabetes in the area. Dr Emmanuel Ahiable, Medical Superintendent, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the initiative involved counselling and education on healthy lifestyles. He said it was important that the people were assisted to appreciate the need to pay particular attention to the food they eat, undertake regular physical exercises and to avoid excessive drinking and other bad social habits. “Hypertension and diabetes would drop if we do this”, he said. Dr Ahiable expressed satisfaction with the increased access to quality health care by people in the district, as a result of the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Out of the total of 34,441 patients, who reported at the hospital’s Out-Patients Department, 29,155, representing 85 per cent were covered by the insurance scheme. Malaria ranked top of the first 10 diseases seen at the OPD during the first half of the year, recording 4,603 cases with 3,906 of them confirmed with microscopy. Dr Ahiable said pregnancy-related complications, road traffic accident cases, hypertension, gyaenacology conditions and typhoid fever were also “in the top 10 bracket.” There were 942 deliveries at the facility from January to June, and out of this 271, were through caesarean session. The area recorded a single maternal death and this was due to meningitis. Dr Ahiable spoke of the need for people to keep their surroundings clean to prevent malaria and diarrhoea diseases. Source: GNA