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Ghana, my beloved homeland, is not only concerned about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the country is equally concerned about how to eliminate one of its silent but major diseases, malaria.
Unlike COVID-19, which is new to us, malaria has been plaguing us for several decades, if not centuries, sending many people to their first graves. Like a hunter deprived of mercy for whatever animal he comes across, malaria is not life sparing. It affects and kills people of all ages and genders.
Malaria remains a major public health problem in Ghana and, by extension, Sub-Saharan Africa, where, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), it is home to 90% of malaria cases and 92 % of registered malaria deaths in the world. 2015.
Every year, many countries in Africa spend huge budgets on malaria-related activities. For example, according to the WHO, in 2018, approximately US $ 2.7 billion was invested in global malaria control and elimination efforts and that almost three-quarters of investments in 2018 were spent in the WHO African Region .
In a study titled: “Estimating the Risk of Diminishing Funding for Malaria in Ghana: The Case for Continued Investment in the Malaria Response” published on June 10, 2020, via www.malariajournal. biomedcentral.com, it was estimated that it will cost Ghana $ 961 million between 2020 and 2029 to eliminate malaria.
Although many malaria control interventions have been implemented in Ghana over the past two decades, malaria remains one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in Ghana.
The disease, according to the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), accounted for 42.8% of cases in the Outpatient Department (OPD), 22.2% of hospitalized patient admissions and 1, 1% of hospitalized patient deaths in 2019.
Currently, malaria accounts for about 34% of OPD cases and 22% of inpatient cases and 2.1% of inpatient deaths in the country.
Although malaria kills without resorting to age and sex, the disease is quite deadly in children and pregnant women, especially children under the age of five.
Statistics from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in 2016 revealed that Ghana recorded a total of 590 malaria deaths among children under five years of age. However, the figure dropped to 327 in 2017, showing an improvement in the country’s effort in fighting the disease.
Although Ghana’s efforts to reduce deaths and malaria cases are commendable, the country remains part of the 11 countries most affected by malaria in the world, with the country registering 333 deaths from malaria at the end of 2019.
It is important to mention that even though malaria-related deaths fell from 2,799 in 2012 to 333 by the end of 2019, since 2012, the proportion of OPD malaria cases analyzed by microscopy or rapid diagnostic test (RDT) has increased. consistently from 40 out of 100 cases in 2012 to 96 out of 100 on trial in 2019.
And of the 10 African countries with the highest malaria burden, Ghana and Nigeria reported the largest absolute increases in malaria cases in 2018 compared to 2017.
Preventing deaths and malaria-related cases is not beyond Ghana’s reach. However, we can do it if we commit to the fight. For example, over the past five years, Ghana has seen a steady decline in malaria deaths in children under five years of age, and more can be achieved.
At an editors’ forum in Accra in September 2020, National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) Deputy Program Director James Frimpong said that Ghana has seen a reduction in malaria deaths in children under five years of age in 83% during the last eight years. .
In his explanation, he added that the malaria-related death rate dropped from 0.6% in 2012 to 0.1% in 2019, showing significant progress in malaria-related child deaths.
For Frimpong, Ghana’s new five-year strategic plan, covering 2021-2025, had been developed with the intention of reducing all malaria-related deaths by 90% by 2023, as well as reducing the incidence of malaria by half. by 2025.
Zero malaria starts with me
The goals of reducing all malaria-related deaths by 90% by 2023, as well as halving the incidence of malaria by 2025, are laudable and must be prioritized in our national activities. This also requires us to change our attitude towards illness, especially how to prevent it in the first place. That is why everyone should participate in the “Zero Malaria Starts with Me” campaign.
The “Zero Malaria Starts with Me” campaign was launched in Africa in 2018 with the goal of achieving zero cases of malaria-related deaths in Africa, particularly in malaria-endemic countries on the continent, including Ghana. Ghana belongs to the 11 countries most affected by malaria in the world.
Adopted by 55 African heads of state and governments, 16 African countries have since launched the (Zero Malaria Start with Me) campaign on a national scale, igniting grassroots movements that seek to engage individuals, families, communities, religious leaders, business leaders, politicians. leaders and other members of society to take ownership of the fight to end malaria, thereby creating a world free of malaria.
The objectives of the “Zero Malaria Start with Me” campaign include mobilizing the financial resources needed to end malaria and building momentum among communities through education and fostering ownership of malaria control interventions.
Our roles
Achieving the goals of the “Zero Malaria Starts With Me” campaign will require that we, as a people and as a nation, give the campaign the necessary support.
Supporting the campaign will also mean that we actively participate in the various malaria control interventions implemented by the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP). These interventions include the distribution of long-lasting insecticide nets (LITTs) through mass campaigns, indoor residual spraying for areas with high parasite prevalence, management of larval sources, seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC), malaria prevention in pregnancy and adherence to test and track treatment (3Ts).
Unfortunately, many of these interventions do not receive the necessary support from the same people for whom they were introduced. Many health experts have expressed concern that many parents who own LLINs will not sleep on them, and some have gone to the extreme of using the treated nets to fence their backyards.
For example, a Ghana News Agency report from September 26, 2020, entitled: “The Media Coalition for Malaria Control and Elimination Launched” quoted Dr. Anthony Adofo Ofosu, Deputy Director General from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), for having said that despite the country’s achievement of more than 70 percent coverage of insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs), only 50 percent of people who owned these nets slept on them, leading to widespread exposure to mosquitoes.
Parents must sleep on the networks with their families. And also, people should refrain from the practice of self-medication. This is because the practice whereby people do not take any malaria test, but instead go to pharmacies and chemical stores to buy anti-malaria drugs based on advertisements they might have seen or heard in the media Not only is it dangerous to your health, it could lead to death.
Most importantly, pregnant women should take the full course of antimalarial drugs given to them during pregnancy. This will help them protect themselves and their unborn babies from malaria infections. This is because malaria during pregnancy, if not detected and treated early, can lead to death.
As the popular adage goes, one stitch in time saves nine. We must all do our part to ensure a malaria-free Ghana, as we cannot afford to lose our loved ones to malaria. Zero malaria actually starts with YOU!
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