Ghanaians invited to use malaria interventions available to reduce the infection

General News of Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-04-24

Dr. Keziah Malm, head of the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), Tuesday urged Ghanaians to make good use of available malaria interventions to reduce the high rate of infections and deaths.

She stated that malaria was still a major disease of public health importance in Ghana, with high rates of morbidity and infection and that even though the number of deaths from the disease had greatly increased diminished, much remained to be done.

Dr. Malm indicated that the interventions available have proven effective and urged the public to support the NMCP's strategies of using long-lasting insecticidal nets, residual sprays at the end of the year. Internal and intermittent preventive treatment in pregnant women (IPT) infection.

She added that others were seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) and the appropriate diagnosis and prevention of case management.

Dr. Malm gave her opinion at a press conference in Accra, where she presented the 2018 malaria badessment in Ghana, in anticipation of the annual commemoration of World Malaria Day, which will be celebrated on 25 August. April 2019 in Somanya, eastern region. .

According to her, available statistics have shown that Ghana has recorded eight deaths each day of malaria in 2012, but that this figure has been reduced to one by the end of the year 2018.

She said that the theme of World Health Day 2019: "Zero Malaria Begins with Me" was a call for personal responsibility and that of stakeholders to accelerate the pace of disease prevention and eradication in Ghana.

Dr. Malm said that Ghana was still in the malaria control phase, that it had not yet pbaded the pre-elimination, elimination and eradication stages. and that "we are doing well in all our interventions, but we have not yet achieved the 80% target".

She explained that the goal of the 2014-2020 National Malaria Strategic Plan to achieve a 75% reduction over 2012 was defined as the base, the number of malaria-related deaths, all ages combined. , reduced by 85%, from 2,799 in 2012 to 428 by the end of 2018.

The case fatality rate among children under five increased from 0.6% in 2012 to 0.16% in 2018, a 73% reduction, while malaria-related admissions for all ages also increased from 428,000 in 2012 to 351,163 in 2018. Reduction of 18%.

Other cross-cutting interventions such as purchasing and supply chain, research, monitoring, monitoring and evaluation, innovative use of technology to collect data on the effective national distribution of 16 million LLINs, as well as advocacy, social and behavioral communication were used.

According to Dr. Malm, the NMCP distributed 18 million rapid diagnostic kits in 2018, bought three million doses of sulfadoxine and pyrimethamine, and guaranteed the availability of malaria drugs throughout the country.

She stated, however, that the NMCP was still struggling to comply with the treatment protocols of prescribers, the negative public attitude towards LLINs, some people even refusing to use mosquito nets, others have abused it, and also complaining of dwindling donor resources to fight malaria and the low use of intermittent preventive treatment of pregnant women.

She added that, in the future, the NMCP was developing strategies to increase participation in malaria control interventions at all levels through effective communication on social change and behavioral change. ; improved domestic resource mobilization; organized institutional engagement and protocol adherence through continuing education and formative supervision.

Dr. Badu Sarkodie, director of public health of the Ghana Health Service, said that more than 200 million people worldwide were affected by malaria, while one child died every two minutes from this disease , not to mention its adverse economic consequences and health systems around the world.

He added that the recent introduction of an additional tool, the new malaria vaccine; MosquirixTM, piloted by Ghana, Malawi and Kenya, welcomes the news to ensure the elimination of malaria and the protection of children under two years old.

Mr. Henry Ampong, Director of Business Banking at ECOBANK Ghana, called for a new focus on malaria control, stating, "We need to take urgent action to get the fight back on track".

He stated that the Bank had a policy that supported education, health and financial inclusion and was committed to partnering with the NMCP to develop the good mental attitude of Ghanaians at home. environmental protection and support key interventions to eradicate malaria.