Ghanaians urged to champion the fight against malaria



Dr. Constance Bart-Plange, Programme Manager of the National Malaria Control Program of the Ghana Health Service has called on all Ghanaians to help champion the crusade towards the fight against malaria in the country.

This, she hinted will help Ghana meet its goal of reducing the disease and death due malaria by 75% by 2020.

Dr. Constance Bart-Plange made the call at a press briefing to launch this year’s World Malaria Day celebration in Accra on Tuesday, April 19, organized by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
This year’s World Malaria Day which will be celebrated on April, 25 worldwide was chosen to commemorate the global effort to fight malaria on the theme: “End malaria for good and invest in the future”.

Dr. Constance Bart-Plange observed the country in its quest to reduce the threats of malaria to completely 0% since 2012 has made significant gains of 45% reduction in malaria deaths but quickly added “Ghana is in a critical situation which demands that all hands must be on deck towards complete elimination of the disease so as not to thwart the gains made so far towards realization of its goals.

According to her, the country has put tremendous measures in place to combat malaria into its barest minimum including distribution of 8.4 million free insecticide treated nets within 5 regions in Ghana namely; Central Region, Ashanti Region, Brong Ahafo Region, Western Region and Upper East Region which saw over 15 million people covered in the year 2015. In 2016, it has distributed 1,814,467 nets in the Northern Region covering a population of 3,266,041.

The malaria control program, according to Dr. Constance-Plange has also undertaken indoor residual spraying of 994,451 structures covering 1,325,507 people in targeted districts in the country.   

It has also taken care of pregnant women by giving them free intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy which 651,986 pregnant women were beneficiaries including seasonal malaria chemoprevention therapy to children between 3-59 months which has led to improvement in their blood level thereby reducing the parasite load.

“All these measures put in place has begun to pay off because we’ve recorded massive reduction in malaria deaths almost 45% in five years. From 2010, we were recording about 4,000 deaths. In 2015, just a little above 2,000 deaths. For us, it is a very great achievement but we are not resting until we get to a stage where nobody will die from malaria”

She also observed most businesses in the country in 2015 has lost a whopping amount of GH₵ 20 million cedis as incurred expenses due to attack of malaria on their employees hence reducing their productivity level to 38%.   

A situation she described as unfortunate, urging businesses to also contribute their quota financially towards the fight against malaria. “If the businesses can invest just a little of amount into the malaria programs so that their employees don’t get malaria, it means that their productivity will go up and they will retain their gains” she stressed.

Director of Public Health Division of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Badu Sarkodie also backed the call for active citizenry participation in contributing their quota towards the prevention of malaria in the country so that more lives including expenses can be saved to meet the countries developmental projects.

According to him, defeating malaria requires the engagement of a number of sectors outside of health, including finance, education, defense, environment, mining, industry and tourism.

Dr. Sarkodie believes there’s the need to mobilize internal resources to invest in malaria control so that Ghana does not lose the giant gains it has made so far in the fight against malaria.

In attendance at the press briefing were organized women groups, traditional leaders, officials from the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service including other stakeholders in health.

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https://www.modernghana.com/news/687126/ghanaians-urged-to-champion-the-fight-against-malaria.html 







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