UK to provide 2.4 million treated nets to fight malaria in Ghana
The UK government is pledging to help fight malaria in Ghana and other African countries, by providing insecticide treated bednets.
The pledge which is to be made by the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, Nick Clegg at the ongoing UN MDGs Summit in New York is aimed at halving the number of deaths caused by malaria in at least ten African countries including Ghana by 2015.
The pledge which will be carried through the Development Fund for International Development (DFID) will provide 2.4 million insecticide treated bednets for Ghana and that is expected to save 13,000 lives a year.
The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), the Ghanaian institution working to manage malaria in the country says the pledge is a welcome gesture.
The NMCP has an ongoing programme to supply insecticide treated bednets to all Ghanaians by the year 2012. Under the programme, the NMCP intends to achieve a universal coverage of providing one bednet to two people.
An official of the NMCP had told ghanabusinessnews.com that the provision of 2.4 million bednets would leave a gap of 6.5 million which would be filled by other donors such as the Global Fund, USAID and so on.
The UK’s pledge will also be backed by an increase in funding to as much as £500 million per year by 2014 from current spending of about £150 million. The precise figure, countries and programmes to which it will be allocated will be decided as part of the ongoing review of all DFID’s country programmes, it has been indicated on the agency’s website.
African economies spend as much as $12 billion every year fighting malaria and that is 1.3% of GDP annually in lost productivity.
A former Minister of Health, Dr. Sipa Yankey had said sometime in August 2009 that Ghana spends $760 million annually to treat malaria. When he stated the figure, he expressed regret that despite this huge expenditure, people still died from the disease.
In the 2009 budget an amount of GH¢921 million was allocated to the health sector, out of which nearly 90% is spent on malaria in Ghana.
Available statistics show that some 90% of malaria deaths in the world occur in Africa.
Malaria is said to be endemic and a major public health problem in areas of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America
Malaria occurs in about 100 countries; approximately 40% of the world population is at risk of contracting malaria.
And according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Ghana had an estimated 7.2 million cases of malaria in 2006, out of which 3.9 million occurred among children less than five years.
Malaria has become the leading cause of morbidity and death in Ghana accounting for more than 19% of all mortality cases with 22% of under five mortality, according to the 2007 World Health Report.
An estimated 3.5 million Ghanaians would visit health facilities due to malaria infections each year and about 20,000 children would have died from the disease.
A Ghana Health Service report published in 2006 says malaria has been estimated to constitute 10% of the overall disease burden in sub-Saharan Africa, being the leading cause of mortality in children aged under five years and accounting for about 40% of public health expenditure. It is also estimated to account for 20-50% of inpatient admissions, and up to 50% of outpatient visits in areas with high malaria transmission.
Analyzing malaria mortality in Ghana, the report indicated that there are three principal ways in which malaria can contribute to death in young children. First, an overwhelming acute infection, which frequently presents as seizures or coma (cerebral malaria), may kill a child directly and quickly.
Second, repeated malaria infections contribute to the development of severe anaemia, which substantially increases the risk of death. Third, low birth weight which is frequently the consequence of malaria infection in pregnant women constitutes the major risk factor for death in the first month of life. In addition, repeated malaria infections make young children more susceptible to other common childhood illnesses, such as diarrhea and respiratory infections, and thus contribute indirectly to mortality. It is estimated that the total (direct and indirect) malaria mortality is at least twice as high as the direct malaria mortality.
As a result, children under 5 are the most vulnerable group for malaria mortality. The distribution of deaths due to malaria by age and sex shows a high peak among children under 5 years, who accounted for almost half (48.2%) of the total malaria deaths.
An advocacy group, Voices for a Malaria-free Future (VfMfF) has called for efforts in dealing with malaria to be focused through simple tasks such as getting pregnant women and children under five treated mosquito nets and to ensure that they slept under these nets.
The group also called on the country to improve malaria treatment through the use of approved medicines such as artesunate amodiaquine or artemether-lumefantrine and dihydroatemisinine piperaquine.
Asking for an improvement of the referral system for complicated malaria treatment and ensuring laboratory diagnosis of the disease.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi