NGOs fight malaria

MINISTERS of Health in the West African sub- region have initiated policies and programmes aimed at eradicating malaria , the Minister of Health Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey has said.
The initiatives, he said had become necessary since no individual country has the capacity to fight or eradicate the disease from their respective countries.
Dr Yankey said this when he inaugurated the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Malaria (GCNM) in Accra and called on them to formulate policies that would compliment the government's effort at the eradication of malaria.
Dr Yankey mentioned some of the programmes currently going on in Ghana as the distribution of insecticide treated mosquito nets to a number of households and the distribution of treated curtains.
He said that the ministry was also in the process of mapping out all breeding sites for spraying.
These programmes among others, the minister said, would sustain the efforts made over the years at the eradication of malaria, admitting that eradicating malaria in the country needed the collaboration of all.
The minister said about three million malarial cases were reported annually in the public health care facilities while about 15 per cent of all deaths in the country were attributable to malaria.
Dr Yankey assured the leadership of the coalition of the government's support of achieving the government's dream of a malaria free society.
The Programme Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Dr Constance Bart-Plange said the NMCP had made some remarkable progress in the past by reducing the number of recorded cases of malaria at public health facilities across the country.
Dr Bart-Plange said the coming together of the NGOs in malaria was in the right direction as it would help in the formulation of unified programmes and policies at the national and community level towards the eradication of malaria.
The Minister of Women and Children Affairs, Ms Akua Sena Dansua said that malaria affected women and children than any other group in the country, for that reason she pledged her ministry's support to curb it.
She said anything that affected women and children would also impact negatively on the socio economic development of the country.
Ms Dansua called on the coalition to factor in their campaign issues early treatment, since this would prevent most of the death recorded as a result of malaria.
The country Director of Johns Hopkins University, Mr Emmanuel Fiagbey and the president of the coalition, Mr Collins Agyarko-Nti also addressed the gathering.