Ghana commemorates World Malaria Day
Ghana today Tuesday, April 25, 2023, joins the rest of the world to commemorate this year’s World Malaria Day (WMD) celebration.
World Malaria Day is a day set aside to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment to malaria prevention and control of the disease.
The 2023 celebration is themed; “Time to Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, and Implement.”
The Day, which was instituted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Member States during the World Health Assembly of 2007, is also observed to highlight successes in the fight against malaria, and individual responsibilities to end malaria and ensure a malaria-free world.
Research shows that over the past two decades, the world has made great progress in the malaria fight, saving more than seven million lives, and preventing over one billion malaria cases.
Despite the progress made, malaria remains one of the oldest diseases and kills more than 400,000 people, mostly young children, around the world every year.
In recent times, the use of proven tools and methods such as insecticide-treated bed nets, better case management of malaria in children and pregnant women, expanded use of preventative medicine during the high malaria transmission season, and insecticide resistance monitoring has contributed to the reduction of the disease burden in most countries including Ghana.
Research shows that in 2021, there were estimated 247 million cases of malaria worldwide with 619,000 deaths.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa Region carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden accounting for 95 per cent of all malaria cases and 96 per cent of death.
Children under the age of five years accounted for 79 per cent of malaria deaths in the African region.
Malaria is a potentially life-threatening mosquito-borne blood disease caused by a plasmodium parasite.
It is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito, which sees the parasite multiplying in the host’s liver before infecting and destroying the red blood cell.
Symptoms of malaria include fever and chills, colds with shivering, headache, impaired consciousness, prostration or adopting a prone position, multiple convulsions, deep breathing, respiratory distress, and abnormal bleeding.
The most vulnerable, such as; persons with little or no immunity against malaria disease, children, and pregnant women are at risk.
Malaria can be prevented with Insecticide Treated Nets, Indoor residual spraying, and antimalarial medications.
Ghana has chalked successes in reducing malaria prevalence from 27.5 per cent in 2011 to 8.6 per cent in 2022.
Testing has also improved from 38 per cent in 2012 to 98 per cent in 2022, reducing deaths due to malaria by 95 per cent between 2012 to 2022 (2,799 deaths in 2012 to 151 in 2022).
It is estimated that at least one person dies from malaria each day in Ghana.
Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), in a speech read on his behalf at a press briefing called on the media, and private sector organizations to support the country to spearhead a domestic resource mobilization to fund malaria activities towards elimination.
It also called for further innovations particularly in vector control, social behavior change, and case management to better tackle the vector and drive uptake of interventions for malaria elimination in Ghana.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye said this was a key step towards sustainable investment and ownership of malaria in Ghana.
Dr Keziah Malm, the Programme Manager for the National Malaria Elimination Programme, (NMEP) speaking on the progress and key performance in 2022 said the country had improved by reducing malaria mortality and infection rate.
She said to ensure that Ghana achieved its target of malaria elimination, much more ambitious objectives under the Malaria Elimination Strategic Plan (NMESP) 2024-2028 had been set, which would further reduce malaria mortality by 100 per cent by 2028.
This would be done using 2022 as a baseline and reduce malaria case incidence by 50 per cent within the same period, Dr Malm said.
She explained that under the NMESP new interventions such as chemopreventive, case management, surveillance, and leadership have been added to ensure the target of malaria elimination of malaria by 2028 was achieved.
She called for innovative behavioral change communication to encourage the use of insecticide-treated bed nets, regular orientation, and training of prescribers, among others.
Dr Malm said malaria elimination in the country was feasible with adequate resources and called on the media to intensify sensitisation efforts to promote the proper use/uptake of malaria control interventions.
The WMD celebration was presided by a press briefing and health walk to create awareness.
Ghana also became the first country in the world to approve a malaria vaccine developed by Oxford University. It was the first time the vaccine has received regulatory approval anywhere in the world.
“The vaccine has been approved for use in children aged 5-36 months, the age group at highest risk of death from malaria,” the university said in a statement.
“It is hoped that this first crucial step will enable the vaccine to help Ghanaian and African children to effectively combat malaria,” it added.
Professor Adrian Hill, chief investigator of the R21/Matrix-M vaccine programme and director of the university’s Jenner Institute, said it marked the “culmination of 30 years of malaria vaccine research at Oxford with the design and provision of a high efficacy vaccine that can be supplied at adequate scale to the countries who need it most.”
Source: GNA