Ghana is finalising its first standard treatment guidelines for the management of lead exposure and poisoning to strengthen diagnosis, treatment and health system preparedness.

The guidelines, when approved, will specify the tests required to identify and confirm lead poisoning, the treatment options to be provided at different levels of care, and the equipment and facilities needed across the health system.

Dr Caesar Nyadedzor, Head of the Poison Control Unit of the Ghana Health Service, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

He said the absence of standard treatment guidelines had left health workers without clear clinical protocols for managing cases of lead exposure, a challenge compounded by the lack of equipment for lead testing in public health facilities.

“If that guideline is not there, people may not be sure exactly what to do. It will help in knowing what kind of medications to offer to different people,” he said.

Dr Nyadedzor said the guidelines would also assist decision-makers in determining the equipment and facilities required at the various levels of the health system, from community-based health facilities to district and regional hospitals.

“Decision makers also use the guideline to know what kind of facilities and equipment are needed at different levels. We are hoping that management at the various levels, including the highest levels, are taking a look at it and would mobilise the appropriate resources.”

Dr Nyadedzor said the document had undergone a stakeholder validation meeting, during which participants submitted additional comments for consideration.

He said a technical team was reviewing the comments before the guidelines would be submitted for ministerial approval and subsequent formal launch.

Asked whether the guidelines would be released before the end of the year, Dr Nyadedzor declined to give a specific timeline, explaining that publication depended on ministerial approval and the completion of the formal launch process.

The development comes amid growing concern over lead exposure in Ghana, particularly from lead-based paint, contaminated water and food crops cultivated in mining communities.

A survey conducted by the Ghana Health Service and UNICEF found that one in every two children under the age of five in Ghana had blood lead levels exceeding World Health Organisation limits.

Health experts have warned that there is no safe level of lead in the human body and that even minimal exposure can cause permanent brain damage, reduced intelligence, kidney disease and other lifelong health complications in children.