| A doctor from Ghana gives a brief progress report on that country's health situation - the advances that have been made and the ground yet to be covered. He cites some interesting statistics: only 30 of the population are over age 30, and more than half are not yet 20; of the 190 emergency admissions during one rainy season 44 could have been prevented by ordinary public health measures; and the crude birth rate is 47 per I 000 with an increase of 2.5-2.8 per year in a population of 8 millio Fortunately, the need for public health measures has been recognized: the I 200-strong health auxiliary force is being increased and its functions expanded; an infrastructure of health centres and posts has been set up to serve rural areas; the physician now includes an immediate postregistration period of epidemiologic work in the field; and the Danfa project, a comprehensive rural health programme, is now being used to test the hypothesis that reducing infant morbidity and mortality is the best way to families to have fewer children. Further efforts to persuade expatriate doctors to come home, to discourage the practice of polygamy, and to educate the public away from "medicine-consciousness" and toward public health consciousness are mentioned. |