Uniting to fight malaria through football

WITH an estimated 8.3 million malaria cases in 2006 and 3.2 million in 2008, Ghana has experienced a significant reduction in malaria over the past couple of years.
This is partly due to increase in major funding for malaria control programmes from the Ghana Government, the Global Fund, the World Bank and the United States President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).
According to Ghana’s National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), funding to fight the disease increased from almost nothing in 2005 to about US$90 million between 2006 and 2008.
Nevertheless, the need for malaria prevention in Ghana is still relevant since about 40 per cent of all out-patients department (OPD) cases continued to be attributed to malaria. That is the more reason why the country’s interest in an initiative, United Against Malaria (UAM) set up last year with the goal of supporting the global fight against malaria through football is so high.
The project, United Against Malaria (UAM) is a partnership of football teams and heroes, celebrities, health and advocacy organisations, governments, corporations and people who have united ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa to support the fight against malaria.
The goal of the team is to galvanise partners throughout the world to reach the United Nations target of universal access to insecticide treated mosquito nets and malaria medicine in Africa by the end of 2010, which is a crucial first step to reaching the international target of reducing deaths to near zero by 2015 through various policies.
Effort to reach the set target include strengthening political and public will in donor countries to increase malaria programming and funding; strengthening political commitment by African leadership to prioritise malaria control and increasing consistent and appropriate utilisation of prevention tools and malaria treatment in Africa.
To ensure that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the local football clubs play a significant role in the UAM project, the President of the GFA, Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi has joined forces with other stakeholders working towards malaria control so that Ghana succeeds.
As part of the efforts, the GFA has organised key Black Star players like Captain Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien and Goal Keeper Richard Kingson to lead the national team in free advertisements to send messages about malaria in some Ghanaian languages across.
The GFA president said other actions the team had so far undertaken include the team’s participation in the creation of the impressive communication tools and the use of the last World Cup qualifying with the Eagles of Mali in Kumasi to send messages on bed net use.
Mr Nyantakyi said footballers were at times affected by malaria adding that “No footballer and in fact sportsman or woman, should fail to shine because malaria has downed him or her, or child or relative has been knocked down by malaria when we all know very well what to do to prevent the disease”.
With this message, the GFA president promised the NMCP of the support of the national team, the national premier league, the division one and two league clubs and even colts’ league to join the fight.
It is also significant to note that the world football body, Federation de Football Association (FIFA) with a letter dated February 10, 2010 congratulated the Roll Back Malaria Partnership for the effort to fight malaria, “a disease which kills a child every 30 seconds and overall, one million people each year”.
In the letter signed by the FIFA President, Sir Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA said it encouraged all campaign partners to engage and find ways to support the Roll Back Malaria Partnership as well as the United Against Malaria campaign to help contribute to the achievement of the set target.
“FIFA offers its support within the framework ‘Football for Health’ to catalyse the world through football to reach the United Nations 2010 target of universal access to mosquito nets and malaria medicine in Africa, a crucial first step to reaching the international target of reducing deaths to near zero by 2015”.
At a three three-day review and planning conference held between March 10 and March 12, 2010 in Accra as part of the UAM programme, participants deliberated on the progress of the initiative and shared results of their efforts to make public impact so far made.
Addressing the participants, the Programme Manager of Ghana’s Malaria Control Programme, Dr (Mrs) Constance Bart-Plange, said Ghana had embraced all the interventions introduced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its fight against malaria.
Those interventions, she noted, included the use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs), use of recommended drugs for treatment, preventive drugs for pregnant women, indoor residual spraying and environmental cleanliness, among others.
Dr Bart-Plange said from as low as three per cent use of ITNs for children under five in 2003, the use of the nets had increased to about 35 per cent presently.
She observed that looking at the interest the majority of Ghanaians had in football, the partnership with the country’s football authority with support from key players as ambassadors to send the message of malaria to the people would work perfectly.
For his part Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi, said hosting FIFA 2010 World Cup in Africa was a historic achievement which offered the individual football authorities the opportunity to use the game in the fight against malaria and also do all they could do to make a difference in the fight against the disease.
“For us at the GFA therefore, it is a social service obligation to be part of this campaign as we find the 3.2 million cases of malaria recorded each year in Ghana and the 20,000 children who die in a year of the disease totally unacceptable. In fact, malaria has held back our country for far too long and we must wake up and kick it out now,” he stressed.
Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite, Plasmodium, which infects red blood cells. Historical records suggest malaria has infected humans since the beginning of mankind.
Symptoms characteristic of malaria include flu-like illness with fever, chills, muscle aches, and headache.
Some patients develop nausea, vomiting, cough, and diarrhoea. Cycles of chills, fever, and sweating that repeat every one, two, or three days are typical. There can sometimes be vomiting, diarrhoea, coughing, and yellowing (jaundice) of the skin and whites of the eyes due to destruction of red blood cells and liver cells.
People with severe P. falciparum malaria can develop bleeding problems, shock, liver or kidney failure, central nervous system problems, coma, and can die from the infection or its complications.