Health Institutions have been tasked to revisit the practice of training more community nurses to visit various homes, work places and schools to promote preventive diseases as well as good environmental practices.

Government has also been urged to empower these nurses with the needed resources so that they could discharge their community work effectively in order to prevent the outbreak of diseases.

Dr. Florence Naab, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, School of Nursing, made the call at the 37 Military Hospital Nightingale week celebration held in Accra.

The occasion was also used to award serving and retired personnel of the hospital.

The celebration is under the theme: “Combating environmental degradation towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) with other stakeholders.”

Dr Naab noted that during nurses’ strike at the Pantang Hospital, people through the media, rained insults on the nurses, questioning whether nursing had anything to do with land issues.

Dr Naab said nurses need a suitable and balanced environment to work in order to save lives.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana has cautioned against the proliferation and abuse of Tramadol, an opioid analgesic.

"The most recent form, as being speculated in the media and as our findings have shown, is the high doses of Tramadol (200mg/250mg) popularly called Tramol among the youth.

"Even though Tramadol is an approved drug for the management of pain, the strengths approved for use in Ghana by the Food and Drugs Authority are the 50mg and 100mg strengths," a statement signed by Mr Benjamin K. Botwe, the President of the Society, and copied to the Ghana News AgencyonThursday said.

It said the proliferation of the higher strength had become popular and called for coordinated efforts by all stakeholders to rid the markets of the unregistered and unapproved product, which had the tendency to threaten the gains made in the provision of healthcare in the country.

"As a Society we are aware of the rampant abuse of this high strength product, especially in the Sahel Region, and the challenges regulatory agencies throughout the ECOWAS region are facing with regards to the distribution and sale of the product.

"These efforts are being supported by international agencies including the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime.

“It has been noted in Ghana that this high dose Tramadol is mostly found in highly populated and concentrated areas including markets and lorry stations in some parts of the country,"the statement said.

Professor Arthur C. Sackeyfio, Founding Dean, University of Ghana School of Pharmacy, has urged Ghanaians to take time to rest and live a prudent lifestyle to mitigate stress, reduce disease and raise the quality life of the nation.

Prof Sackeyfio noted that productivity level of the country was low because many workers do not rest to regain the lost energy, saying the inability to rest leads to stress and impacts negatively on health.

He gave the advice at a lecture in Accra on the “Stress and Rest: Pharmacodynamic Modulation for Sustainable Human Health” organised by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Prof Sackeyfio said rest was an important component of the body because it mitigated pain and manifested complete relaxation from psychological and socio-cultural engagement.

The Professor explained that the body responded to stress by releasing adrenaline for alarm and orlistol to facilitate adaptation to the stress.

He mentioned that stress driven diseases include hypertension and other cardiovascular disorders, disease of the respiratory and psychosomatic disorders as well as lifestyle and diet related diseases.

He noted that chronic and excessive stress was life threatening because it affected health sustaining energy needed for physiological activity, adding that the major signs and symptoms of stress included nervousness and depression and restlessness and sleep disorders.

Prof Sackeyfio said it was imperative for all to rest and relieve the body from stress, because social stability fosters national growth and development and peaceful co-existence ensured stress-free and a healthy national life.

He urged all to inculcate the habit of resting since it helped to replenish energy and recover from strain as well as increase concentration, memory function and overall mood.

A former Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. E. N. Mensah, has underlined the need for strong support for research into plant medicine.

He said more should be done to promote the integration of plant medicine into mainstream medical practice in the country.

Speaking at the 15th annual general meeting of the Medical Superintendents’ Group in Koforidua, he indicated that Ghana had huge untapped treasury in plant medicine that must be exploited.

He added that the nation was losing a lot from the low attention it was giving to “this area of medicine”.

Dr. Mensah noted that the Center for Research into Plant Medicine at Mampong-Akuapem had herbal preparations that held enormous promise for the treatment of many of the cancers, which the hospitals had been struggling with.

He spoke of a case involving his own relative, who was diagnosed of cervical cancer, referred to the Center and was treated of the cancer.

This, he said, was about 15 years ago, and that the woman was now strong and healthy - going about her work.

Dr. Mensah said for more than a-half-of-a-century, the Center had had a cure for asthma which the country had not taken advantage of.