Exposure to carbon monoxide and particulate matter among cassava grits processors in the middle belt of Ghana: a cross-sectional study.

Introduction: exposure to smoke from biomass combustion during economic activities is a major health risk. One of such commercial activities that use biomass fuel is gari (cassava grits) processing. Cassava grits is a staple food produced from grated and fermented cassava.

Current respiratory symptoms and risk factors in pregnant women cooking with biomass fuels in rural Ghana.

Background: More than 75% of the population in Ghana relies on biomass fuels for cooking and heating. Household air pollution (HAP) emitted from the incomplete combustion of these fuels has been associated with adverse health effects including respiratory effects in women that can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a major contributor to global HAP-related mortality. HAP is a modifiable risk factor in the global burden of disease, exposure to which can be reduced.

Knowledge of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana; a cross-sectional study.

Background: Antibiotic resistance (ABR) has become a major public health challenge in most parts of the world including Ghana and is a major threat to gain in bacterial disease control. The role of prescribers in the control of antibiotics is identified as crucial in developing interventions to control ABR. To guide policy recommendations on ABR, a study was carried out among prescribers to identify gaps in their knowledge of ABR and to document their prescription practices.

Urinary Concentrations of Insecticide and Herbicide Metabolites among Pregnant Women in Rural Ghana: A Pilot Study.

Unlabelled: Use of pesticides by households in rural Ghana is common for residential pest control, agricultural use, and for the reduction of vectors carrying disease. However, few data are available about exposure to pesticides among this population. Our objective was to quantify urinary concentrations of metabolites of organophosphate (OP), pyrethroid, and select herbicides during pregnancy, and to explore exposure determinants.

Pesticide exposures in a malarious and predominantly farming area in Central Ghana.

In areas where malaria is endemic, pesticides are widely deployed for vector control, which has contributed to reductions in malaria deaths. Pesticide use for agrarian purposes reduces pest populations, thus improving crop production and post-harvest losses. However, adverse health effects have been associated with pesticide exposure, ranging from skin irritation to neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity.

Association of Carbon Monoxide exposure with blood pressure among pregnant women in rural Ghana: Evidence from GRAPHS.

Background And Objective: The Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study (GRAPHS) is a community-level randomized-controlled trial of cookstove interventions for pregnant women and their newborns in rural Ghana. Given that household air pollution from biomass burning may be implicated in adverse cardiovascular outcomes, we sought to determine whether exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) from woodsmoke was associated with blood pressure (BP) among 817 adult women.

Methods: Multivariate linear regression models were used to evaluate the association between CO exposure, determined with 72 hour personal monitoring at study enrollment, and BP, also measured at study enrollment.

Ghana randomized air pollution and health study (GRAPHS): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Household air pollution exposure is a major health risk, but validated interventions remain elusive.

Methods/design: The Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study (GRAPHS) is a cluster-randomized trial that evaluates the efficacy of clean fuels (liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG) and efficient biomass cookstoves in the Brong-Ahafo region of central Ghana. We recruit pregnant women into LPG, efficient cookstove, and control arms and track birth weight and physician-assessed severe pneumonia incidence in the first year of life.

Gestational Age Assessment in the Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study (GRAPHS): Ultrasound Capacity Building, Fetal Biometry Protocol Development, and Ongoing Quality Control.

Background: Four million premature deaths occur yearly as a result of smoke from cooking fires. The Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study (GRAPHS) is underway in the Kintampo North municipality and South district of rural Ghana to evaluate the impact of improved cook stoves introduced during pregnancy on birth weight and childhood pneumonia. These hypotheses are being tested in a cluster-randomized intervention trial among 1415 maternal-infant pairs within 35 communities assigned to a control arm (traditional cooking) or one of two intervention arms (cooking with an improved biomass stove; cooking with liquefied petroleum gas stoves).

Placental malaria and the risk of malaria in infants in a high malaria transmission area in ghana: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Whether the risk of malaria is increased in infants born to mothers who experience malaria during pregnancy is uncertain.

Methods:  We investigated malaria incidence among an infant cohort born to 355 primigravidae and 1500 multigravidae with or without placental malaria (PM) in a high malaria transmission area of Ghana. PM was assessed using placental histology.