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SPRING Holds HemoCue® Training of Trainers Workshop in Tamale, Ghana

Man having test done on hemoglobin levels

The regions in the north of Ghana have a high prevalence of anemia among children under five, and pregnant and non-pregnant women of reproductive age. Recognizing the limited anemia screening capacity at Ghana Health Service (GHS) facilities, USAID, through the SPRING and RING projects, distributed HemoCue® devices to these facilities in the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West Regions of the country. HemoCue® devices are used to measure hemoglobin levels in the blood for the purpose of screening for anemia. The appropriate use of these HemoCue® devices will provide a major boost to identifying anemia, and subsequently, taking adequate measures for its control. At the request of the Regional Health Directorate of the Northern Region, SPRING Micronutrients Technical Advisor Denish Moorthy developed HemoCue® training curricula for health workers, and conducted a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop for ten trainers in Tamale on February 26, 2016. The trainers included lab technicians, nutrition officers, public health and staff nurses, and disease control officers. The objective of the training was to review and improve the ability of the trainers to use the HemoCue® devices to obtain accurate hemoglobin measurements, and enable them to independently train frontline health workers in using the HemoCue® devices at the district and sub-district levels. The trainers will plan and carry out training workshops at district and sub-district level facilities that have a HemoCue® device utilizing SPRING/Ghana’s training materials.