The member of parliament for Ningo Prampram in the Greater Accra Region, Samuel Nartey George has blamed what he referred to as irresponsible lifestyle choices by Ghanaian youth as partly contributing to the rise in kidney-related diseases in the country.
According to the lawmaker, some people are suffering from kidney diseases through no fault of theirs, but the majority of the cases are caused by bad lifestyle choices such as reckless smoking of weed, shisha, cigarettes and other hard drugs in the name of fashion.
He cited East Legon and other parts of Accra where young people publicly display drug use without care about the health consequences that they might suffer later.
Sam George said this among others in an interview with Benjamin Akakpo on Joy News TV.
He lamented how most young people are consuming all sorts of concoctions in the name of aphrodisiac as if it is the biggest achievement ever, all of which end up damaging their kidneys and other vital organs.
He cautioned that it is about time the country took a critical look at some of these trends and banned some of these dangerous substances to save the citizenry.
Cases of kidney diseases are on the rise in Ghana, and health officials are worried because more of the cases involve young people.
Currently, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has shut its renal unit for months now and many patients have died while the conditions of others have worsened. The premiere health facility cites a GHC4 million debt as one of the reasons for shutting its renal unit.
Source: ANDREAS KAMASAH