Hundreds of people from all walks of life Saturday joined Joy FM presenter Kwame Sekyiama, better known as Lexis Bill to climb the Aburi Mountain in the second edition of the fitness campaign dubbed ‘Walk with Lexis’.
Participants including Kwaku Agyemang Manu, Minister for Health, and King of Comedy, Kwaku Sintim Misa, KSM, and other notable personalities joined the host of Joy FM's Drive Time programme to walk, jog and beat the sweat of their glands from the Ayi Mensah toll booth to the Peduase Junior High School.
Numerous fitness instructors were on standby as they each at a time took participants through rigorous fitness exercises aimed at improving their cardiovascular health.
Speaking on his quest to extend the fitness campaign beyond Accra, Lexis Bill believes that promoting a healthy lifestyle through fitness exercises is the cheapest and affordable way to save people from being incapacitated by sickness.
He expressed satisfaction at the number of people who turned up for the health walk, adding that he is encouraged to draw people out of their homes to walk with him at least once a month in order to create a healthier society.
On the part of the Minister, he advised participants to discard the notion of exercising to reduce weight but to rather think of the numerous benefits that come with being fit and healthy.
According to him, the upsurge of non-communicable diseases is getting higher and one thing that reduces the risk of such diseases especially heart-related ones is to exercise regularly in order to be fit and more productive at work.
Mr Agyemang Manu said the Ministry is considering the introduction of a walk and dance health and fitness campaign, an initiative he said was already in the pipeline.
He said part of the Ministry’s strategic medium-term plan is to promote regenerative health which a department in the ministry has been dedicated to.
Turning his focus to HIV/AIDS prevention, the Minister said Ghana has signed up to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90–90–90 agenda aimed at preventing and eliminating the virus by 2030 around the globe.
He said the short to medium term target is to ensure that by 2020, 90% of all people living with HIV in the country will know their HIV status. He added that anyone diagnosed with HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy.
He encouraged Ghanaians to get tested and screened for the HIV virus at least once in every 6 months in order to help them secure early treatment that would go a long way to boost their immune system as they live their normal lives.
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 primenewsghana.com/Ghana News
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