The exercise, carried out by the Kumasi Metropolitan Health Service Directorate, benefitted about 1,800 students and 94 teaching and non-teaching members of staff of the school. Apart from eye screening, the students and staff were also screened for dental problems and malaria symptoms. They also checked their blood pressure and HIV status. Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Headmaster of the school, Mr. Y.K. Agyare, said the exercise, which formed part of the 60th anniversary of the school, was to offer the opportunity to both students and staff to determine their health status to enable them to seek treatment, where necessary. He said some of the students and members of staff sometimes showed symptoms of eye and dental problems, hence the decision of the school authorities and old students to organize the screening. Mr. Agyare said the school was located in an environment where sanitation was not the best, hence the screening for symptoms of malaria, and thanked the metropolitan health service directorate for its prompt response. In his remarks, the Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Health Services, Dr Kwasi Yeboah-Awudzi, said the screening formed part of the outreach programmes of the directorate to make health services more accessible to the people. He said last year it carried out similar exercises in some first cycle institutions in the metropolis and gave the assurance that it would be extended to second-cycle institutions this year to enhance the early detection of diseases affecting students.
|
