Malaria Prevelance dropped in Ghana

Malaria prevalence in the country has dropped considerably from 86.8 per cent to 27.5 per cent, Dr Constance Bart-Plange, the Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), has said
The achievement is partly attributed to the distribution of free insecticide  treated nets to households throughout the country.
 Addressing the opening session of the Media Malaria Advocacy Orientation for media practitioners in Accra yesterday, Dr Bart-Plange said a total of 11,443,691 mosquito treated nets had so far been distributed nationwide.
  The meeting was organised by the NMCP, the John Hopkins University Centre for Communications  Programmes and the Voices Against Malaria in partnership with the Ghana Media Malaria Advocacy Network (GMMAN).
The aim of the meeting was to ride on the back of the ongoing AFCON 2013 football season to improve upon the capacity of the media to enable journalists to sustain media advocacy malaria programming and the launch of the AFCON 2013 Goal, Malaria magazine.
It was also to direct efforts towards energising the media to increase their advocacy support for the programmes and actions in malaria management.
Dr Bart-Plange said almost 90 per cent of Ghanaian mothers of children under five years now knew the cause of malaria and were able to identify mosquito bite as being responsible for the disease.
That, she said, was a positive move to taking the right step in preventing the disease and properly treating it. “The NMCP is proud of the achievement,” she said.
Dr Bart-Plange called on the media and all partners to play their roles of providing and disseminating the required information that could enhance efforts to promote the adoption of the approved tools in preventing and treating malaria.
For his part, Mr Emmanuel Fiagbey, Country Director, John Hopkins University Centre for Communications Programme, said malaria killed a child every 60 seconds in Africa and 655,000 people worldwide every year.
He said malaria increased healthcare cost for governments and led to loss of working days, a situation which contributed to absenteeism and decreased productivity at the workplace.
Mr Fiagbey indicated that malaria contributed to reduction in internal mobility and damage to the potential growth sectors of the economy such as tourism and deterred foreign and local investors from moving their capital around.
According to him, it was estimated that Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could have been $100 billion higher today if malaria had been eliminated in the early 1960s.
He said a 10 per cent reduction in malaria cases was associated with 0.3 per cent higher annual growth of the economy of any country.
He said “any expenditure made in malaria prevention today is an investment in development for tomorrow, for the children saved today are surely the builders of tomorrow.”
Ms Vivian N. A. Aubyn said that there was a need to work together to reduce the social and economic impact of malaria in order to promote development.
She said fostering partnerships was a strategy of the National Malaria Control Programme in Ghana captured in the Malaria Strategy Document (2008-2015).
Ms Rosemary Ardayfio, Chairperson of GMMAN, said the purpose of the programme was to ride on the back of the ongoing African Cup of Nations 2013 football season to improve upon the capacity of the media in Ghana to enable journalists to sustain media advocacy for malaria programming.