CAPE COAST, March 28, (BERNAMA-NNN-GNA) -- Executive Director of Healthy Ghana Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, has expressed regret that some Ghanaians still held the belief that superstition, instead of germs and said this was one of the major drawbacks of the health care system in Ghana.

He said it was worrying that even the highly educated held firmly to this belief and would resort to prayer camps instead of hospitals until the situation became worse.

Prof. Akosa was speaking on Communication, Culture and Health at the third day of the first University of Cape Coast (UCC) Faculty of Arts Colloquium in Cape Coast with the aim of providing a platform for researchers in the humanities at UCC and other avenues to disseminate research findings on selected themes in order to inform policy briefs of the University and the nation.

Participants, drawn from various health, culture and communication disciplines including staff and students of the Faculty of Arts are being taken through three plenary presentations, forty-eight scientific research reports, a seminar as well as a round table discussion.

Prof. Akosa expressed concern that the poor and aged were invariably accused of using witchcraft to cause diseases and other predicaments, adding that many lives which had been lost to convulsion and other health conditions could have been saved if the superstition factor had been eliminated.

He said even though prayer camps continuously abused peoples trust , patrons would always choose the camps over hospitals and warned leaders of such camps to be careful with their activities since they could be legally held responsible for the death of the sick persons under their care.

He condemned the belief that the human urine could cure diseases and urged the general public to be wary of the kind of medical advice they adhere to.

Prof Akosa, a pathologist, said the superstition factor had led to the lack of trust in pathologists since most people thought it was unnecessary or held strongly to the belief that some people especially traditional leaders were not supposed to be operated even in their demise.

He said some Ghanaians even the well -educated did not possess the habit of reading about their health conditions either on line or in magazines and therefore encouraged them to read more about health especially the labels and briefs that come with drugs.

On herbal medicine Prof. Akosa said the mystic power of herbal medicine had eluded the herbalists ability to identify the active ingredients in the herbs and had therefore set the stage for criticism of herbal medicines ability to cure more than one disease.

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Superstition Is A Drawback To Ghana's Health Care System