2017 World Malaria Day:Ghanaians walk to create awareness ahead of major event
Ahead of this year’s World Malaria Day event which falls on April 2015, 2017, some youths in the country have demonstrated strong commitment towards the success of the event by embarking on a health walk exercise to raise awareness of it.
The exercise began in Accra at exactly 15 minutes passed 7:00 o’clock in the morning on Saturday April 22,
with over two hundred participants in attendance drawn from various institutions including Civil Society Groups, Governmental Organizations and other stakeholders in the health sector of the country.
They walked through some principal streets of Accra carrying placards with various inscriptions conveying key messages on how to end malaria till they got to Kawukudi Park at Nima where they finally converged.
Speaking in an interview with Journalists, Dr. Constance Bart-Plange expressed optimistic about her outfit’s performance in raising the bar on awareness creation which has improved the reduction of the menace drastically over the years .
But she however expressed worry over the attitude of some unscrupulous persons who are still creating water bodies for mosquitoes to breed in by digging trenches at the backyard of their houses.
She therefore called on all Ghanaians who are fond of exhibiting such practices to cease immediately.
The Malaria Control Program Manager also raised serious concerns about the attitudes of some people who are fond of taking malaria drugs whenever they experienced any feverish condition.
According to her, Malaria is not the only disease which has a symptom as a fever but cited other diseases like Typhoid, Cholera, Ebola, Meningitis among others,therefore urged those people who are fond of such behavior to always ensure they are examined medically by a doctor to know if it’s malaria before taking its drug.
Dr Bart-Plange also laments about the attitudes of some rubbish dump operators in the country who wrongly uses the mosquito net as a cover for the garbage truck(s). She also complained about others using the net as a cover for their gardens instead of sleeping avoid getting infected with malaria and strictly warned against such practices.
For her part, Deputy Program Manager, National Malaria Control Program, Dr. Keziah Malm charged all Ghanaians to endeavor to prevent malaria at all cost by sleeping under treated mosquito net, treat themselves with the malaria drug if they have been infected to end the menace for good.
The exercise was organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service and its partners.
The World Malaria Day is observed globally every year on April 25, to create awareness and provide education on the disease. This year’s commemoration will be held on the April 24, 2017 under the theme: “End malaria for Good”. Her Excellency the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akuffo-Addo will be the guest of honour for the launching event which will take place at the Accra International Centre.
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