The Adansi-North District Director of Health Services, Mr Isaac Awuku Odame, has revealed that Ghana is the tenth most malaria endemic country in the world, accounting for 2% of the global malaria infection in 2021.
According to him, 5.7 million Ghanaians contracted the plasmodium driven parasite in 2021, with a corresponding fatality figure of 308 people.
Mr Isaac Awuku Odame noted that World Health Organisation (WHO) had forecasted that Ghana’s malaria outlook would reach 5 million and this has come to pass.
“Ghana recorded 5.7 million malaria cases in 2021, making her the tenth most endemic malaria country in the world,” he reiterated.
According to him, the number of people that visited hospitals in Adansi-North, including areas such as Fomena and Akrokeri last year, stood at 25,706 out of which 13,686 tested positive for the disease, representing 53% of the total number of people who tested positive for malaria in the area.
The District Director of Health Services was speaking at AngloGold Ashanti’s celebration of World Malaria Day, which was held at Dompoase in the Ashanti region under the theme: “Advance Equity; Build Resilience; End Malaria”.
Over 1,000 residents undertook malaria screening, under the auspices of AGA Wellness Foundation and AGA Malaria Control Ltd., an offshoot of AGA, which seeks to concentrate on the health of the masses in its catchment area.
The event brought together stakeholders such as AGA Malaria Control Ltd, AGA Health Foundation, GIZ Developers Programme, Adansi North District Assembly, Dompoase Traditional Council and Adansi North Directorate of Health and Education to commemorate the World Malaria Day.
Awuku Odame expressed worry about the uptick in malaria cases, saying it means the people in Adansi-North do not take malaria intervention seriously, as it should.
He said: “When you are ill, you do not go to hospital; you do not protect yourself so that you would not contract the disease. We do not sleep in mosquito-treated nets. Let us protect ourselves against malaria as we celebrate World Malaria Day 2022, so that in future Adansi-North can become one of the communities in Ghana that could be used as a case study in eradication of malaria.”
Isaac Odame further told the gathering that “Malaria is the leading sickness at Out Patient Departments (OPD) across Ghana, but we have means to correct this development”.
On the global front, he revealed that 241 million people were infected with malaria disease, adding that 627,000 deaths occurred in the name of the plasmodium variant disease.
Using European nations and Communist State of China as a yardstick, Awuku mentioned that there are means that can be used to address this challenge.
In a message which was delivered on behalf of the Sustainability Manager of AGA by Mr Emmanuel Oduro Agyei, he noted that as they mark the World Malaria Day at Domoase, it is important they drum home the need to safeguard their environment against the disease for a healthy life.
Oduro Agyei noted that the AGA malaria control programme started in 2006, in an attempt to cure malaria, which is affecting staff of the mining company.
According to Oduro Agyei, because of the laudable strides of AGA in Sustainable Development Strategy, it has attracted support from the global fund, AGA, which has aided them to extend their tentacles to other parts of Ghana.
He added that through the intervention, more than 1,177,450 people in 159,355 households across all operational areas are protected from malaria annually.
