As part of efforts to ensure adequate levels of iron and folic in adolescent girls in the Upper East Region, the Regional Director of Health, Dr. Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi has called on various stakeholders and the media to help in disseminating information about the benefits of Iron and Folic Acids to adolescent girls in society.
In October 2017, the Ghana Health Service and its partners rolled out a programme known as Girls Iron-Folate Tablets Supplementation which was aimed at preventing anaemia and ensuring enough iron levels in adolescent girls in society.
But the programme, while making modest gains, is yet to achieve full results due to the many misconceptions that the drugs are for family planning.
According to Dr. Dzotsi, it is worrying that many adolescent girls decline to take the Iron and Folic Acids tablets as rolled out by the Ghana Health Service and its partners with the reason that, the pills are for family planning pills.
He lamented that these were just myths that needed to be diffused in the minds of these adolescent girls in society.
“Despite the benefits of the Iron-Folic Supplementation programme for adolescent girls, the programme has been faced with persistent myths and misconceptions which has negatively affected its intake and acceptance. Some of these include, Iron Folic tablets that have been seen as a family planning pill” he revealed.
Speaking at a Press Briefing on Girls Iron-Folate Tablets Supplementation programme (GIFTs) at the Regional Health Directorate, Dr. Dzotsi underscored the importance of having enough blood in the body which he says helps in its proper functioning and hence, without blood the body cannot function properly.
He stated that, “the tablets are not for family planning which is a view held by many adolescent girls in the various schools who are supposed to take it. They decline and say that it is for family planning”.
Dr. Dzotsi who blamed the situation on parents of these adolescent girls explained that, some of these misconceptions are inscribed in the minds of these young girls by the parents who should have been the ones to motivate them to take the tablets, describing the attitude as worrying and may have dire consequences in the health of these young adults.
The Girl Iron-Folate Tablet Supplementation Programme which was rolled out in 2017 provides iron and folic tablets once weekly to adolescent girls in Junior and Senior High Schools as well as Technical and Vocational Schools and adolescent girls within the Upper East Region.
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