China supports Ghana’s malaria programme (Back Page)

8-6-2009

THE Chinese government is to help Ghana to move from malaria control to eradication.
Subsequently, experts in the development of anti-malarial interventions from China are having discussions with officials of the Ministry of Health (MoH) to begin the process through aggressive and integrated anti-malarial strategies.
The strategies, according to the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Elias Sory, would include mass prophylactic medication, early diagnoses and treatment of malaria cases and mass outdoor larvicidal and indoor residual spraying.
This came out at a ceremony in Accra yesterday where the Chinese Embassy in Ghana handed over US$280,000 worth of anti-material drugs, the third batch of Artemisinin combination therapy (ACT)-based anti-malarial drugs, to the GHS.
Dr Sory said discussions, tests and studies were still ongoing to ensure that the programme would bring malaria epidemiology from the current 40 to 50 per cent of outpatient department (OPD) cases down to less than 0.5 per cent within the next three years.
He expressed the hope that it was possible for Ghana to eradicate malaria and explained that some countries which previously suffered from malaria and which of late repeated the mass application had achieved the eradication of malaria, to a large extent.
“Ten to 15 countries have been reported to have applied to the WHO to be evaluated to have reached the pre-elimination stage,” he stated.
He thanked the Chinese government for donating the drugs to Ghana and pointed out that the country was prepared to partner with strategic investors or donors of technology transfer for the country to derive its own generic brands of ACTs.
That, according to Dr Sory, would help the country to ensure the effectiveness and success of the strategy of universal access to malaria control logistics and mass application when the eradication campaign was launched.
He touched on other benefits Ghana had received from China and mentioned sponsorship for training Ghanaian health personnel, the donation of anti-malarial drugs over the years and currently the funding of the 100-bed general hospital at Teshie which would include a malaria research centre.
For his part, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Yu Wenzhe, expressed the willingness of his country to help Ghana and added that a medical team would soon arrive in Accra to support the country’s healthcare delivery.
He spoke about the cordial relationship and co-operation which had existed between China and Ghana which he said began immediately after Ghana’s independence, adding that his government would continue to assist Ghana.