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General News on Thursday, April 25, 2019
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2019-04-25
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While World Malaria Day is celebrated on a global scale, the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) revealed that it was striving for 100 malaria tests. % by 2020.
Dr. Nana Yaw Peprah, an epidemiologist with the NMCP, said that although the prevalence of the malaria parasite among Ghanaians is decreasing, the lack of screening tests for the disease before treatment remains a challenge.
Speaking Wednesday on the Joy News channel on MultiTV, Dr. Peprah said that the figures for malaria mortality in Ghana had plummeted, revealing that in 2018, 428 people died of malaria, compared with 2,137 in 2015.
"The gap is being tested. All suspected cases are not tested and, therefore, [people] do not confirm malaria before [they] treat. So these are some of the few challenges we have. But according to our goal, we want to perform 100% tests.
"Which means that by 2020 we want to make sure every suspect case in our [health] the installations are tested. We do more training with prescribers … our hope is that we commit ourselves [the prescribers], we give them the RDTs [Rapid Diagnostic Tests] to make sure that when people come to them, they are tested, "he said.
He added that it was important that people first undergo a malaria test before taking any malaria medication, because as parasitaemia levels drop, "the mosquito can sting you but you will not contract the malaria parasite. So, the symptoms that people will show are not necessarily malaria. "
He cited a case where, in one region, an epidemic of meningitis had often been confused with an epidemic of malaria until health staff detected the problem.
World Malaria Day
On Thursday, April 25, the NMCP will travel to Somanya, Eastern Region, to celebrate World Malaria Day this year.
The first lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, is announced at the launch.
The choice of the Eastern Region city, Dr. Peprah told Mamavi Owusu-Aboagye, host of the AM show – takes into account the relatively high prevalence of malaria in the region compared to others.
The theme for World Health Day 2019 is "Zero malaria begins with me".
The theme is a call for personal responsibility and stakeholder responsibilities to prevent and eradicate the disease quickly in Ghana.
Ghana is currently in the malaria control phase and is yet to undergo pre-elimination, elimination and eradication, respectively.
Dr. Peprah said that before Ghana can achieve elimination, the government should adequately fund control programs by making eradication a priority in its health program.
"For countries that have eliminated malaria, that was part of their priorities. Everyone has talked about it, from the president to the worker, he said.
At the same time, statistics show that Ghana was doing well in all aspects of malaria interventions.
The under-five malaria mortality rate fell from 0.6% in 2012 to 0.16% in 2018, a reduction of 73%, while the number of malaria-related admissions among all ages also decreased percent reduction.
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