GHANA MARKS WORLD MALARIA DAY (SPREAD, APRIL 20, 2010)

The world’s giant insecticide treated mosquito net was unveiled in Accra yesterday.
The 30x20 feet net, which was made possible through the collaboration of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was mounted by ProMPT Ghana as a prelude to the commemoration of World Malaria Day celebrations scheduled for April 25, 2010 worldwide.
The programme, which was on the theme: “Counting Malaria Out”, was to help promote the four key malarial prevention and control actions in the country.
The four key actions are nightly use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs), intermittent preventive malaria treatment for pregnant women, indoor residual spraying (IRS) and prompt and appropriate treatment for all malarial infections.
The acting Mission Director of USAID, Mr David Atteberry, said if Ghana adhered to those four proven malarial control actions, the country would be able to address issues of malaria.
Mr Atteberry said it was important that young children and pregnant women slept under an ITN every night to help prevent them from having the illness.
“To support the government of Ghana, the US Government is providing 955,000 ITNs for distribution to pregnant women and children under five years in the Northern and Eastern regions over the next one to four months. The American people are also procuring an additional 850,000 ITNs for distribution in other regions later this year.”
Aside the provision of ITNs, he said USAID would be carrying out an IRS campaign in six rural districts of the Northern Region.
He explained that the campaign would entail the spraying of insecticides to the interior walls of houses to kill and repel malarial transmitting mosquitoes, which could remain active for three to six months.
For her part, the Programme Manager of NMCP, Dr Constance Bart-Plange, said the public should treat malaria with seriousness and a sense of urgency, since it had the potential of crippling the country.
She said “the battle against malaria cannot be attained without the use of treated nets, since they serve as a barrier between an individual and the mosquito”.
She, therefore, advised that infected persons should visit a health centre for accurate diagnosis and treatment with artemisinin-based combination medications.
“The era of the use of chloroquine to treat malaria is past,” she noted.