Features
Hepatitis B wahala
When I first wrote this article, it was dedicated to the memory of Merari Alomele, a true legend. My first editor when I started this column almost a decade ago. There will never be another Alor – humour, wit, relevant information and many more all rolled into one being. Yet who can begrudge The Almighty, He knows best.
July 28 as always, was World Hepatitis Day, and this year’s theme was, “Finding the Missing Millions.” The goal is to create awareness of Hepatitis, find the undiagnosed and link them to care. I will however focus on Hepatitis B today.
These days it is common knowledge that a good way to make quick and easy money in “Sikaman” is to put fear in unsuspecting victims. Mushroom churches hyping witchcraft, herbalists and health professionals diagnosing doom at the least provocation, politicians painting opponents as the devil’s brigade and investment consultants in three-piece suits that will be the envy of Merari’s friend Kofi Kokotako, insisting that you will outlive your current savings unless…Life was much simpler in the “good old days”.
People are screening for Hepatitis B in churches, market places, train stations, fetish shrines and every imaginable and unimaginable place. The most criminal aspect of this is that there is NO PRIOR COUNSELING in many of these situations. Some people in white coats even take advantage of people who test positive for Hepatitis B (the surface antigen) and charge exorbitant fees to “treat” them.
Can you imagine what goes through the minds of people who may test positive at a screening with neither pre nor post test counseling and may have to wait for several hours or days before seeing a doctor? They often enter the consulting room with one foot in the new world. Some would have started a new fast without the element of prayer, a few will be competing with cholera patients for the use of the “small room” and others develop a penchant to pray in tongues that even the apostles at Pentecost would have been envious of.
I know we are not screening enough people at the hospitals but if you need to do any form of screening please ensure that you have people adequately trained to counsel participants before and after the tests. Such a simple thing will reduce the number of people who develop instant diarrhoea, sleeplessness, loss of appetite and generalised anxiety disorder long before their liver will even sense it has a problem.
Yes, Hepatitis B is common in “Sikaman” but not everyone is dying from it. Seek early medical advice and in most cases you will live long enough to enjoy fufu and palm nut soup for many many years to come.
An acute episode of Hepatitis B, like many viral infections may present as:
Loss of appetite
Nausea
Vomiting
Fatigue
Headache
Fever
These symptoms may be followed by jaundice, an abnormal accumulation of the chemical bilirubin in the blood, which causes yellowing of the eyes, skin and body fluids (such as tears), as well as a darkening of the urine.
This sounds almost like malaria, doesn’t it? So you may be harming your liver if you continue to take medication to treat malaria without seeking medical attention.
Your doctor will request for a few tests that will provide information on the stage of your infection and the state of your liver.
Many professionals will just prescribe:
Healthy lifestyle.
Avoid medications that have not been prescribed. Even popping paracetamol tablets at the least hint of pain could be dangerous. Avoid herbal preparations.
Avoid alcohol.
Get adequate rest.
A few may add a vitamin but that may simply be a matter of choice. Many people will be able to fight the virus and clear it from their system. A few others will not succeed on their own and may require further monitoring.
If there is a Hepatitis B, then there must be an A, C et cetera. RIGHT! We get Hepatitis A through the faeco-oral route which means; whenever you are diagnosed with Hepatitis A, you must have directly or indirectly eaten someone’s shit (pardon my language). Ensure you always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before eating and keep food and water appropriately.
We contract Hepatitis B and C through similar routes and these include:
Unprotected sexual activity.
Needle sharing (includes drug users).
Sharing of razors and toothbrushes.
Piercing or tattoos.
Transmission from infected mom to infant at time of delivery.
You protect yourself by avoiding the above and also being vaccinated against the virus. You can only be given the vaccine if you test negative for Hepatitis B surface antigen.
People with Hepatitis B, like those with HIV, COVID-19 and many other viral infections may look and feel perfectly well but as carriers, they can spread the infection.
Some good news here, you are unlikely to contract Hepatitis B infection from the following:
Hugging
Kissing
Sneezing
Coughing
Sharing food or drinks
Dear friend, to avoid or fight most viral infections, the drill remains the same, boost your immunity by:
Exercising often and appropriately.
Eating a balanced meal and drinking adequate amounts of water.
Getting rest.
And if a vaccine is available, get vaccinated.
AS ALWAYS LAUGH OFTEN, ENSURE HYGIENE, WALK AND PRAY EVERYDAY AND REMEMBER IT’S A PRICELESS GIFT TO KNOW YOUR NUMBERS (blood sugar, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, BMI)
Dr Kojo Cobba Essel
Health Essentials Ltd/Mobissel/St. Andrews Clinic
(www.healthessentialsgh.com)
*Dr Essel is a Medical Doctor, holds an MBA and is ISSA certified in exercise therapy, fitness nutrition and corrective exercise.
Thought for the week – “290 million people worldwide are living with viral Hepatitis unaware.” Let us raise awareness so that many more can be tested and receive the necessary care.
References:
Sikaman Palava – The Writings Of Merari Alomele
Primed Patient Education Center – Harvard Medical School
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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