PAEDIATRIC SURGEONS MEET IN ACCRA

Paediatric surgeons are meeting in Accra for the Seventh Congress of the Pan-African Paediatric Surgical Association (PAPSA) congress.
The seven-day congress is a biennial event and is expected to attract more than 100 participants.
The Ghana Association of Paediatric Surgeons (GAPS) is for the first time hosting this year’s congress with a series of events on the theme, “The Challenges of Neo-natal Surgery in Africa”.
The President of PAPSA, Dr Mrs Afua A. J. Hesse, told the Daily Graphic that in line with the association’s aim of sharing expertise in the area of neonatal surgery in Africa, the congress had brought together participants from countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas.
A series of sessions and workshops would be held with two Canadian surgeons, Professor Jean-Martin Laberge, a paediatric surgeon, and his wife, Prof. Louise Laberge, a paediatric plastic surgeon, during the congress.
Paediatric surgeons in training would also benefit and learn adaptable methods and skills of surgery in children.
Participants have had the chance of gaining skills in certain types of surgery in children in a laboratory setting, while the resource persons have also taken them through surgery in Hirschsprung’s disease, which affects the nerves of the back passage in children resulting in constipation and cleft lip repair.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that the risk of neonatal death is six times higher in developing countries than in the developed countries and setting the tone for upcoming events, Dr Mrs Hesse said the congress would share the expertise needed by all, particularly developed countries, in reducing mortality in infants and children.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY AUGUST 21, 2008, PG 47