Get to Know the #OTOMTG21 International Guests of Honor: Otorhinolaryngology Society of Ghana

Anna Konney, MDPrior to 2003 when the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons was formed, there were only a few ENT surgeons available in Ghana, with postgraduate training only being done by the West African College of Physicians and Surgeons. Since then, the number has grown multiple fold with the accessibility to training and retention of manpower in the country.

The Otorhinolaryngology Society of Ghana (OSoG) was founded to achieve quite a few objectives, such as to promote fellowship among otolaryngologists, address specific ENT problems in Ghana and contribute to the solutions, and collaborate with other international, regional, and local societies on areas of common interest.

There is an increasing need for training for subspecialties in ENT, which was initially only available in South Africa (clinical fellowship in advanced head and neck surgery and FESS) and other limited resource countries outside Africa. Two fellows completed training in head and neck surgery and one in FESS.

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ghana has introduced a Newborn Screening Program as a new service to screen all newborn babies for hearing loss. To improve access to hearing screening and treatment for hearing loss, the hospital has purchased otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem response test to run the screening for newborns.

In the past year with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the world, guidelines were developed and tailored for safe practice to address the challenges we faced in low-resource settings and with limited PPE available. Through COVAX, in March 2021, the AstraZeneca vaccine was introduced to Ghana, the first African country to receive and distribute free vaccines.