A medical practitioner has appealed to FM stations to place premium on the health of the public and not to allow commercialization to take precedence over health issues.
He said the slightest misinformation or misdirection over the use of drugs could lead to unnecessary deaths.
Dr Samuel Kwashie, Acting Central Regional Director of Health Services, said this at a Ghana Health Service/ media collaboration seminar in Cape Coast on Tuesday.
The seminar, which brought together about 40 media personnel drawn from the region, was to foster collaboration between the media and health officials towards the appropriate dissemination of information on health issues.
He expressed concern that sometimes advertisements as well as claims on air by some people that they have cure for certain chronic diseases tended to misinform the public thereby endangering their health.
Dr Kwashie said the media had the potential to transform the health status of the public through dissemination of accurate information to help counter some of such negative claims.
The two organizations, he said, could work together to improve upon health care delivery in the region and urged the media to promptly report any such misleading information on health to his outfit for immediate correction to enable the public to make informed choices.
Mr Ebenezer Koomson, the regional HIV/AIDS coordinator, appealed to the media to desist from sensationalism and to be circumspect in reporting about people living with the disease in order to help reduce stigmatization.
He urged HIV/AIDS patients to improve their immune system with good nutrition and to have their opportunistic infections treated promptly.
Mr Koomson said the virus had become more of a social problem and urged the media to assist the GHS by setting a meaningful agenda in combating it.
Ms Margaret Forson, the Deputy Regional Director of Nursing Services, said maternal mortality was a big issue for the region that recorded 102 of such deaths in 2007 while the rate for 2008 was 160 deaths per every 100,000 live births.
She said to address the situation some measures such as outreach antenatal and family planning clinics have been put in place and emphasis placed on skilled assisted delivery.