‘Behavioural change critical to fight against malaria’
The Acting Programme Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme, Ms Keziah Malm, is calling for behavioural change in the fight against malaria.
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She said while a number of intervention programmes had been put in place to fight the disease, behavioural change was key to winning that fight.
Ms Malm made the call when she gave an overview of the burden of malaria in Ghana at the launch of the Malarial Control Behavioural Change Communications Campaign in Accra last Tuesday.
She explained that malaria, which is an acute parasitic disease of the blood, and transmitted by the female anopheles mosquito, could be prevented if puddles around homes were eliminated, if people slept under bednets and all suspected malaria cases were tested.
For instance, she said, between 2014 and 2015, 13.6 million insecticide treated nets (ITN) were distributed “but the problem is that not all the ITNs are used for the purposes for which they were distributed.”
Ms Malm stated that a survey carried out in 2014 revealed that though 68 per cent of households had ITNs, only 47 per cent of them slept in ITNs on the night of the survey.
Campaign
The campaign is being championed by the National Malaria Control Programme, with support from UNICEF, UKAID and the Ministry of Health, to get more people to sleep under ITNs.
It includes the roll-up of free distribution of ITNs to vulnerable groups and also to encourage the consistent use of the nets, since studies have shown that the nets are often abandoned in periods of low mosquito activity and high night-time temperatures.
Care of nets
Before launching the campaign on behalf of the First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, the Minister of Health, Mr Alex Segbefia, said the impact of malaria was felt not only in the number of persons affected, but the disease also impacted on the socio-economic development of the population.
He said some of the behavioural barriers to malaria control included delay in seeking effective treatment, the inconsistent or non-use of ITNs and the distribution of intermittent preventive therapy without fully explaining its use to pregnant women.
He urged families not only to use their ITNs every night but to also care for the nets and repair them when they were torn.
Poverty
In a welcome address, the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Gloria Quansah Asare, said malaria was one of the causes of household poverty as it resulted in absenteeism from the daily activities of productive living and income generation.
The disease, she said, continued to prevent many schoolchildren from attending school.
The Country Representative of UNICEF, Ms Susan Namondo Ngongi, said the nets cost less than GH¢25 and could provide protection from malaria for about three years, translating into less than two pesewas a day.
She added that Ghana had made significant progress on the use of nets, with 65 per cent of Ghanaians sleeping under a net, compared to 20 per cent five years ago.
A Health Adviser of UKAID, Mr Shamwill Issah, said the organisation had committed £500 million to the global fund to fight malaria over the next five years.
He expressed worry over the low domestic investment by countries in the effort to wipe out malaria and urged district assemblies to commit to spend 0.5 per cent of their common fund on the fight against malaria.
