Malaria kills 15,000 Ghanaians in 5 years

• Posted on April 21, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

About 15,063 people have died of malaria-related cases between 2010 and 2015, according to figures released by the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

The programme has, however, recorded a reduction in yearly in-patient deaths of malaria decreasing by 45 percent in the last five years.

The NMCP, announcing the figures during a pre-press briefing towards the World Malaria Day on April 25, said the reduction in malaria deaths was due to improved case management.

Giving the yearly figures of malaria fatalities, Dr Constance Bart-Plange, programme manager of NMCP, said 3,882 malaria deaths representing 19.5 percent was recorded in 2010; however, the figure reduced to 3,197, representing 18.1 percent in 2011.

She mentioned that the programme in 2012 recorded another decrease in malaria deaths with 2,799 incidence representing 12.6 percent being recorded.

Dr Bart-Plange, however, pointed out that in 2013, there was a slight increase in malaria deaths with 2,985 deaths representing 12.5 percent being recorded.

“We had a huge reduction in 2014 with 2,200 deaths representing 7.2 percent and last year it was further reduced to 7 percent with 2,137 deaths,” she said.

The NMCP programme manager, explaining the goal of the programme which is to reduce disease and death due to malaria by 75 percent by 2020, disclosed that the programme distributed 8.4 million insecticide treated nets (ITNs) which translates into 15 million people being covered in 2015.

In addition, 698,348 nets were again distributed through antenatal care, child welfare clinics and through commercial partners.

“This year, we have already distributed 1,814,467 ITNs in the Northern Region, covering 3,266,041 people and we are going to scale this up to the Upper West and East,” she added.

She said although the programme had made significant progress, challenges, including failure of some beneficiaries to use their ITNs regularly, inappropriate care seeking attitude of some caretakers of children under five years and presumptive treatment of malaria needed to be addressed by all.

Dr Bart-Plange again said poor environmental cleanliness, threat of illegal surface mining to malaria vector control intervention and limited internal financial resources for malaria control also hinder the progress of malaria control in the country.

She, thus, called for all to invest in preventing malaria in the populace, especially among children.

“Defeating malaria requires the engagement of a number of sectors outside of health including finance, education, defense, environment, mining, industry and tourism. It is possible, others have done it, and Ghana can do it too,” she pointed out.

Dr Bart-Plange further said the theme for the World Malaria Day: ‘End Malaria for Good: Invest in Malaria’, suggests great confidence in the fight against malaria, and called for stakeholder effort to accelerate the effort of the country in malaria.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri