Accra, April 19, 2018//-The story of Ghana’s fight against autoimmune diseases can never be told without mentioning the contribution of Dr Dzifa Dey.
In 2012, on her return home from training in UK as the first rheumatologist in Ghana, she could not understand why young Ghanaians were losing their lives to these unfamiliar diseases.
According to MedicineNet, rheumatologist is a specialist in the non-surgical treatment of rheumatic illnesses, especially arthritis. While healthline.com says: ” An autoimmune disease is a condition in which your immune system mistakenly attacks your body”.
Some autoimmune diseases target only one organ. Type 1 diabetes damages the pancreas. Other diseases, like lupus, affect the whole body, it added.
To this end, Dr Dey set up the Rheumatology Initiative (tRi), a non-profit organization founded in 2012, dedicated to providing education, advocacy and research into the autoimmune rheumatic conditions in Ghana and Africa.
Through the project, Dr Dey is also focusing on helping young and adolescent persons with these conditions to get lifelong medications and treatments.
Why the project
Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s disease fighting cells get confused and attack itself, as a result of the body failing to recognize its own component parts as part of itself, leading to an immune response against its own cells and tissues, Dr Dey who is also Rheumatologist physician specialist at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital explained.
These diseases have been on the rise for decades worldwide. It is more common than HIV/AIDS, leukemia, sickle cell disease all combined together. Autoimmune diseases together constitute the fourth largest cause of death among women.
It affects more people than heart disease worldwide. It is poorly understood, poorly recognised and of apparent increasing incidence in Africa.
While in Ghana, the diseases affect more women in Ghana about 70 percent than men due to the role of sex hormones with the estrogen being speculated to promote the production of auto-antibodies, according to health experts.
Patients were suffering and dying of the diseases in Ghana. 48% of admitted lupus cases died! Contrast to what is happening in the UK and other parts of advanced world, she added.
Also, many patients believe their diseases to be a result of “spiritual attack” based on the wide symptom complex and using scientific terms and “foreign educational material “to explain their disease to them is very difficult with the resultant effect being a lot of patients default to seek spiritual or herbal treatment, coming back only when the disease is far advanced.
The symptoms and signs of the autoimmune diseases are malaise, fatigue, rashes, hair loss, febrile illness, recurrent miscarriages, visual impairment, joint swellings, memory loss, strokes and limb weakness, health experts said.
Achievements
Over the years, through these initiatives, the project has been able to achieve a number of things. It had supported the Rheumatology Unit of Korle-bu Teaching Hospital that currently treats over a 1000 people, lit up the National Independence Monument of Ghana Purple in May 2017 to raise awareness for lupus this is the first time this has been done in Ghana/Africa, and organised a one day educational update course in Rheumatology for over 120 doctors from all over Ghana in August 2017 to empower them to be able to diagnose early and efficiently various autoimmune conditions as this would help augment the lack of specialists.
Dr Dey added: “We supported the first rheumatology nurse to get a training programmme to help build capacity in the specialized area; and we have also run 66 support group sessions and activities, with an average attendance of 30 to 35 patients monthly over the past five years.”
“We have provided free or discounted emergency medication to over 55 patients every year and have also provided free or discounted lab tests to 30 patients”.
Impacts
“As part of strategies to achieve our aims, we have set up a support group, Rheusolute, for young and adolescent persons with autoimmune conditions.
This group meets once every month and currently has over 180 members with conditions such as Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and doubles as source of information and healing interaction outside the consulting room”, she explained.
Dr Dey noted that they had subgroups of persons living with Lupus (G.L.OW), persons living with Rheumatoid Arthritis (G.R.A.S.P) and persons living with more than one autoimmune conditions (G.E.M.M.S) which allow them to reach members more closely and address condition specific needs as well as adult members.
Furthermore, she said: ” We have established a Patient Assistance Program which provides emergency financial assistance to those with a life altering diagnosis of lupus or other autoimmune diseases and who have a high financial need.
We are also providing free emergency medication and lab tests, free medical consultation to them. Over the past five years, we have supported over 128 patients with lifesaving treatments”.
Besides, the project is providing handicraft training as a long-term and empowering solution to enable patients augment their salaries to be able to afford these lifelong treatments that are so expensive.
Heroes of Change nomination
In view of the sterling contribution of her project to the fight against the autoimmune diseases, Dr Dey was gladly nominated to participate in this year’s MTN Heroes of Change.
It is currently aired on GTV every Sunday at 5:00pm; TV3 on Saturdays at 4:00pm;UTV on Sundays at 3:00pm; Adom TV on Saturdays at 7:30pm; Max TV on Fridays at 7:00pm; and Home Base TV on Saturdays at 3:30pm to highlight the humanitarian activities of Dr Dey and the other nine nominees.
The MTN Heroes of Change which is MTN Ghana Foundation flagship project was initiated in July 2013 to recognise and reward persons who have provided significant humanitarian services to their communities through personal sacrifices.
The MTN Ghana Foundation is the corporate social responsibility (CRS) arm of MTN Ghana, the leading telecoms services provider in the country.
Dr Dey’s project was highlighted recently in the ongoing season IV of the MTN Heroes of Change.
These diseases are entirely avoidable with the right education to make patients get diagnosed early before they cause any damage to the immune system. Dr Dey is also recommending early treatment with appropriate medication for people living with the disease(s).
She continued: “Now this required education of patients, health workers who unfortunately are lost when it comes to these conditions and making sure that at the critical stages where this damage to organs can be salvaged the appropriate medications was available for those who can’t afford”.
Project funding
Initially, the project was self-funded for the best part of the first two years by Dr Dey with support from her husband, until three years ago when they devised ways to raise funds to try and sustain the charity project.
To this end, they have organised three major fundraising events to support the patients assistance program, and an annual poetry and music show.
“This year we used a jumble sale to raise some funds. We run social media emergency fundraising campaigns to support patients who were in urgent need of funds for medications/procedures. We continue to urge the general public to support our initiatives by donating via mobile money”, Dr Dey said.
Challenges
She identified the lack of funding, low level of awareness about these conditions even at the medical and government levels, and stigmatization of the patients as the major challenges facing her project.
Expansion plans
After operating in the Accra metropolis for a number of years, Dr Dey and her team are lacing their boots to expand the project to all regions of Ghana. Currently, the project has cell groups in each region but their no doctor or specialist to help run them.
In fact, “we have been contacted by doctors from Nigeria and some sub-Saharan African countries to help them start tRi in their countries. Currently, because of lack of specialist doctors we are trying to increase the training of non-specialist doctors to help expand this services to all regions”.
It is apparent that Dr Dey needs more resources as well as support to enable her solve these challenges. So, if she wins the GHC 100,000 ultimate prize of the MTN Heroes of Change, it will go a long way to help in the project’s growth and expansion.
Besides, the fame, the award will greatly motivate her to keep fighting the autoimmune diseases. Dr Dey therefore needs your vote to win the ultimate prize. You can do so by texting her short code name (Dzifa) to 1406.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
