Integrated strategies needed to fight malaria – Health Director
Ghana can win the war against malaria if only all key strategies and interventions geared towards fighting the disease are implemented together and at the same time, Dr Alexis Nangbeifubah, Upper West Regional Director of Health Services has said.
Addressing the Anglo Gold Ashanti (AGA) Malaria Control review workshop at Wa in the Upper West Region on Friday, he observed that throughout the world no disease had been eliminated by using a single strategy but rather through several integrated approaches.
Referring to the Republic of Israel, which has eradicated Malaria, he said, Ghanaians needed to be committed in the battle against Malaria. The disease is the leading cause of attendance at hospitals and clinics, morbidity and death of children under five years in the country.
“If you want to control malaria, our environment should not encourage mosquito breeding”, he stated.
The workshop, which was attended by chiefs drawn from the operational districts of the programme, namely Wa Municipal, Wa East and Wa West districts, reviewed the first six months of the programme’s “Indoor Residual Spraying” (IRS) in order to correct all lapses and resolve the challenges.
The AGA malaria eradication programme was launched in Obuasi in 2005 and it led to massive reduction in malaria cases among workers of the company from 6000 a month in that year to about 40 cases in June this year.
The continued success of the programme prompted the Ministry of Health to join forces with the AGA and with the support of Global Fund the programme is being extended to other parts of the country.
Mr. John Owusu, General Manager in-charge of Public Affairs of the AGA, said since the inception of the Programme, malaria cases in Obuasi and its environs had decreased by 75 per cent.
He said the AGA spent a total of about $9 million in its control programmes in the Obuasi area alone before Global Fund came in with their support of about $130 million for the countrywide programme which would last for five years.
Mr. Sylvester Segbaya, Acting Director of the AGA Malaria programme, said seven more districts in the region namely, Jirapa, Lawra, Lambussie, Sissala West, Nadowli, Bussie, Daffiama, Issa and Nandom would be rolled into the IRS programme in July 2012.
In 2013, he said, the gradual scale up of the IRS would take place in Sissala East District and other areas in the Western and the Upper East regions.
He said all the personnel undertaking the spraying were being recruited from the beneficiary districts while the insecticides selected after a scientific study of their impact on the communities.
Source: GNA