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Participants after the launch of the project
Participants after the launch of the project

Project to enhance malaria care launched

A project to strengthen the quality of malaria care and surveillance in three districts of the country has been launched in Accra.

The three-year pilot project, estimated at £800,000, will be implemented in selected communities in the Kintampo, Dodowa and Navrongo districts.

The project is expected, among other objectives, to accelerate the reduction of malaria burden among 91,496 children under 10 years and 9,286 pregnant women, as well as train 201 community health officers.

It is being implemented by the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and their Health (INDEPTH Network) through the Navrongo, Dodowa and Kintampo research centres.

 

Objective

The project is being funded by Comic Relief UK, a non-governmental organisation, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a British pharmaceutical company.

The Head of the Kintampo Research Centre, Dr Kwaku Poku Asante, speaking at the launch, said the project, dubbed: “Strengthening quality of malaria care and surveillance in Ghanaian communities”, would also improve knowledge among malaria care providers and enhance community demand for quality malaria care, as well as data for decision making.

He said to ensure its sustainability, the project would engage community leaders, stakeholders, district malaria management teams and malaria focal persons in its entire process.

 

Expected outcomes

Some of the expected outcomes of the project include improved knowledge of malaria care providers (MCP), such as community health officers or nurses, licensed chemical sellers (LCS) and community-based workers to test and treat malaria.

It will also enhance the demand for and access to quality malaria care at the community level, as well as strengthen the quality of malaria data using a health information system at the community level by MCPs.

In the short term, the project is designed to increase the level of malaria diagnosis, using malaria rapid diagnostic test, from the current eight per cent to 50 per cent among the primary beneficiaries at the community level.

The Executive Director of INDEPTH and Project Initiator, Prof. Osman Sankoh, who launched the project, expressed the hope that it would succeed, saying the research centres which were going to implement it were capable.

He said the three centres had collaborated to undertake other research projects successfully over the years.

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