Malaria management project begins in Kumasi

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The Department of Community Health of the School of Medical Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has began a research on the feasibility, acceptability, cost and policy contextual issues concerning home management of children between six and Fifty-nine months affected by malaria in the Kumasi Metropolis.
The project, expected to be completed in May next year, was being implemented on pilot bases in 20 communities in the Asokwa sub-metro.
It aims at providing information and training to selected people to enable them to observe symptoms of the disease so that they would administer anti-malaria drugs on children less than 5 years in malaria endemic communities in the Metropolis.
Mr Peter Agyei-Baffour, a research fellow of the department and member of the research team, said these at a meeting to inform stakeholders in health delivery about the project, in Kumasi on Tuesday.
He said the introduction of the project in the metropolis followed the successful implementation of a similar research in the Ejisu-Juaben District, where it had been proved that the management and control of malaria at home was effective.
Mr Peter Agyei-Baffour said people were selected from communities in the Ejisu-Juaben district, trained and provided with pre-packaged dosage of artesunate-amodiaquine to administer on children suffering from malaria.
He said there was much evidence to show that the management of disease at home was effective but changes in drugs had made it impossible for the project to be replicated nationwide.
Mr Agyei-Baffour said malaria continued to pose serious challenge to health care delivery in Ghana and called for appropriate and cost effective approaches to the control of the disease.
Dr Joseph Oduro, Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Health Services, said malaria was now not only a medical condition but a social problem.
He said it was the responsibility of all stakeholders to take keen interest in the management and control of malaria, especially among children and pregnant women who were most vulnerable to the disease.
Dr Oduro commended the media for contributing to the prevention and control of the disease.
He urged journalists to intensify education on proper sanitation practices to reduce the incidence of malaria in the country.
Mr Denis Kar, member of the team, said management of malaria in the urban areas was complex and called for multi-sectoral approach.
He stressed the need to identify vulnerable communities in order to design appropriate measures to control the disease.