Scores of people in the Upper West Region, especially Wa and its environs, have benefited from free health screening on genetic diseases from the GhGenome project.
The beneficiaries were screened for Sickle Cell disease, Breast cancer, and prostate cancer, which the GhGenome project regards as very common dangerous genetic diseases in Ghana and the world over.
Speaking in an interview with Info Radio in Wa at the weekend, Professor Fiifi Ofori-Acquah, the Director of the GhGenome Project, said the free health screening was part of the efforts of the project to impact the lives of people.
Prof. Ofori-Acquah, who doubled as the Director of the West African Genetic Medicine Centre (WAGMC), advised the general public to endeavor to go for screening of genetic diseases for early detection and treatment.
According to him, they were doing the screening exercise across the regions of Ghana through the traditional leaders using the various festivals as a vehicle for achieving the project objective.
The Director stated that the GhGenome project was funded by cooporate Ghana with the assistance of the Okyenhene who was the patron of the project with some funding from the World Bank through WAGMC.
He said the screening had already been held in Accra and Cape Coast during the Homowo and the Fetu Afahye festivals respectively, with Wa having it turn during the Damba festival.
“Sickle cell disease is the most common genetic disease in Ghana and the world and it affects our people more than any other genetic disease.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and we know that changes in DNA can influence your risk of getting breast cancer and prostate cancer is the most common in men”, Prof. Ofori-Acquah.
Prof. Ofori-Acquah said the project was also aimed to educate the general public on genetics as well as a DNA sequencing of 1,000 Ghanaian children with Sickle Cell Disease.
He indicated that funding had already been secured from a grant in the United States for the DNA sequencing for the first 500 children.
He added that the WAGMC, which heads, was also to provide Post-graduate programmes in genetics - MSc in genetic counseling, and MPhil and PhD in Medical Molecular Genetics- at the University of Ghana.
The primary purpose of the World Bank funding was for the Centre to train post-graduates in molecular genetics but we decided that we want the work we are doing to touch our people in various parts of Ghana, so the GhGenome was conceived with the purpose of impacting the Ghanaian society”, Prof. Ofori-Acquah said.
Some of the screening beneficiaries expressed gratitude to the GhGenome project team for the intervention which they said would help them to know their genetic diseases status.