Renewed
interest in the fight against malaria in Ghana has triggered the attention of
both the private and public sectors to pull together their effort resources to
conquer the disease.
It
is become a menace to the development of the country and Africa as a whole.
Malaria
has no less devastating effects on our health and the economy of the country.
The worst of it all is losing our life to the mercy of the disease.
Bill
Gates indicated that “The damage this disease does is quite incredible… The
parasite has been killing children and sapping the strength of populations for
tens of thousands of years … Now we can chart a course to end it. (Cited in the 2014 AMMEREN magazine and
credited to rollbackmalaria.org/worldmalariaday )
However,
as we count days into 2015, much efforts are being put in place to fight the
disease in order to achieve the malaria specific Millennium Development Goal
(MDG). This collaborative effort sees both the private sector and the public
sector striking hard against the disease.
Therefore,
some preventive measures are outlined to reduce the disease infection;
encouraging people not to live close to their livestock, decreasing house hold
sides to, perhaps, three per room, proper drainage of water, clean gutters and to
crown it all, sleeping under Long Lasting Insecticide Mosquito Nets.
These
intervention measures have seen the emergence of Non Governmental Organization
(NGOs) in Ghana with deferent intervention programs to help fight the disease;
the Zoom Lion Ghana LTD, Anglo Gold (AG) Malaria LTD etc.
AG
Malaria LTD is a Ghanaian NGO that is contributing to the fight against malaria
in Ghana. It was established about nine years ago and was formally called Anglo
Gold Ashanti Malaria Control Program.
The
initiative, by a mining company called AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, is to help fight
malaria in Ghana. It is currently operating in four regions, AshantiRegion,
Upper West Region, Upper East Region and Central Region.
It
has employed about 1500 field personnel nationwide. These personnel are given
the needed training upon employment to equip them with the skills and expertise
needed for killing mosquitoes using insecticide. They are also offered on the
job training, usually after every six months seasonal intervals.
In
a telephone interview with the Upper West Regional Monitoring and Evaluation
Coordinator of AngloGold Malaria ltd, Mr. Oduro Yaw Antwi, he stated that AG
malaria Ltd started as an intervention to curb for the rampant complains of
their staff about malaria which was causing the company a huge financial loss.
He said the company lost human resources as a result and also financial loss in
treating the infected persons.
For
this reason, AGA Ltd initiated the strategy of spraying their workers rooms to
reduce the rate of malaria infection.
This
initiative became a nationwide activity after it was proposed to Global Fund
and gained sponsorship from the Fund. It was therefore renamed AngloGold
Malaria Ltd after it gained the Global Fund sponsorship.
Mr.
Antwi said the initiative is aimed at reducing the rate of malaria infection in
Ghana since it may not be possible to totally eradicate it. And the reduction
will be done through spraying of rooms to destroy mosquitoes.
He
indicated that in a bid to fight malaria through destroying mosquitoes, the
insecticides used for spraying are changed periodically to avoid mosquitoes’ growing
resistance to the insecticides. Therefore, the former insecticide that was used
vectoguard, which was changed to protoguard, and the current insecticide is
actelic.
Mr.
Antwi also said the insecticides used have no adverse effects on the people but
that, it can cause dizziness if care is not taken.
It is therefore encouraging to note that the
initiative is yielding good results in reducing the rate of malaria infection
particularly in the areas of operation.
BY
PHILIP B TENGZU.
GHANA
INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM.
