Price disparity of drugs threat to fight against malaria (page 38)

THE difference in the cost of recommended anti-malarial drugs within the public and private health sectors has been identified as a challenge to the fight against malaria in Ghana.
That is because while the first line anti-malarial drug of Artemisinim Combination Therapy (ACT) is sold at 30Gp at public health facilities, it goes for GH¢3 at private health institutions.
This came to light at the opening of a three-day 2008 Pfizer Mobilise Against Malaria (MAM) initiative meeting in Accra on Monday (yesterday).
The purpose of the meeting was to evaluate malarial control programmes that benefitted patients in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal.
It is to enable health experts to address critical gaps in malarial treatment and education and discuss best practices aimed at improving prompt and effective treatment.
In her presentation on “Gaps in Malaria Treatment,” Ms Lisa Foster of Pfizer Investments in Health said effective malarial drugs were currently available but there were critical obstacles to their distribution.
She added that the distribution of such drugs was hampered by weak healthcare systems and inadequate patient education, as well as care, adding that patients were often unaware of new and effective treatment prevention options.
In her address, the Programme Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Dr Constance Bart-Plange, acknowledged the problem of accessibility and affordability of ACTs, especially in the rural communities, adding that many people had to resort to buying from licensed chemical sellers, whose prices were higher than those at the public health facilities.
She said the government had currently sent proposals to various development partners, who might help provide the drugs at lower prices or even free to all health service providers throughout the country.
In an interview with journalists, Dr Bart-Plange said malaria continued to be a problem in Ghana because many people failed to adhere to the issues of proper environmental practices, sleeping in insecticide treated nets and completing malarial treatment.
Presenting a report on the overview on MAM partner programmes, a representative of Family Health International (FHI), Dr Henry Magai, said MAM had the objective of improving on early detection of malaria to ensure early treatment.
He also said to further fight the disease, a series of training programmes on how to detect the disease and effectively manage it had been organised for licensed chemical sellers and their counter assistants, home givers and mothers of children under five years.
For his part, a representative of Ghana Social Marketing Foundation, Mr Geoff Anno, said his organisation had developed a training module, as well as community mobilisation manuals, for the benefit of people in the communities.
He blamed the inability of some Ghanaians to access affordable treatment in public health facilities on poor roads in certain parts of the country, adding that such people had to rely on the private sector whose products were not easy to afford.
A release to journalists at the meeting indicated that the three-country initiative, involving Ghana, Kenya and Senegal, was launched in 2007 and would be implemented over the course of five years (2007-2011).
It said through MAM, the group was providing grants, evaluation support and the technical expertise of Pfizer colleagues through the Pfizer Global Health Fellows (GHF) programme to support the country initiatives.
Malaria is the leading cause of under-five mortality and constitutes 10 per cent of Africa’s overall disease burden. In Ghana, malaria accounts for more than 44 per cent of reported out-patient visits and an estimated 22 per cent of under-five mortality in Ghana.
The release said Pfizer’s programme in Ghana aimed to reduce the rate of malarial morbidity and mortality by improving malarial symptom recognition, treatment, and referral through targeted training activities and complementary community mobilisation campaigns to improve the quality of treatment and strengthen the demand for care.