World Malaria Day 2015
By Andrew Karas, Acting Mission Director, USAID Ghana
Malaria is a preventable disease.
For a decade, the U.S. Government has been committed to improving the lives of Sub-Saharan Africans by reducing malaria-related deaths. Prevention and treatment measures are key to healthy, strong communities.
In Ghana, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) works under the leadership of the Government of Ghana’s National Malaria Control Program, with other U.S. Government partners such as the Peace Corps, international donors, and non-governmental organizations. We focus on delivering equitable care by targeting rural areas where the burden of the disease usually falls on families who have lower incomes and whose access to health care is most limited.
The United States malaria program through PMI continues to be a leader in the global fight against malaria. USAID is a proud implementer of this initiative here in Ghana. Partnerships at all levels are vital to success in the battle against malaria.
According to the World Health Organization, increased malaria control interventions resulted in an estimated 4.3 million fewer malaria deaths globally since 2000. Between 2000 and 2013, malaria mortality rates in African children were reduced by an estimated 58 percent. In Ghana, child survival is also improving and all-cause mortality rates among children under the age of five have declined from 80 per 1,000 in 2008 to 60 per 1,000 in 2014.
Additionally, with the U.S. Government’s support, countries are strengthening their own capacity to fight the disease. With support from PMI, Ghana’s national medicines quality control laboratory within Ghana Food and Drugs Authority (GH-FDA) recently attained an internationally recognized accreditation. This accreditation enabled GH-FDA to conduct quality control tests for anti-malarials in Ghana and to detect counterfeit malaria medicines, improving access to good quality medicines in-country.
Here in Ghana, insecticide-treated mosquito nets, effective diagnosis and treatment, and indoor residual spraying, have made significant impact for malaria prevention and control. PMI-Ghana supports capacity building and systems strengthening for nursing and midwifery schools, teaching hospitals, practicing health care providers, pharmacists, and over the counter medicine sellers. The initiative supports the Government of Ghana to improve country systems for research and analysis, pharmaceutical management, and methods for addressing public sector supply challenges and to ensure better management of malaria commodities.
PMI is committed to invest in the future by defeating malaria. Last year PMI-Ghana donated:
1) over 1.3 million Insecticide Treated Nets to prevent malaria transmission;
2) 5.7 million malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests and 3.7 million doses of ACTs (malaria medicines) to strengthen proper diagnosis and treatment of malaria;
3) 1 million doses of Sulphadoxine pyrimethamine, a medicine used to prevent malaria
during pregnancy, to resolve the stock-out situation in-country.
Additionally, PMI provided support to the Ghana Health Service to conduct supportive supervision of thousands of health staff involved in malaria case management nationwide and trainings for health workers in intermittent preventive treatment to prevent malaria during pregnancy. In 2014, PMI also supported the spraying of over 200,000 rooms and protecting over 560,000 people, among them almost 12,000 pregnant women and over 100,000 children through the Indoor Residual Spraying program.
Through collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program, we are on the right track to win this fight. Between 2008 and 2014, we saw households who owned at least one insecticide treated net (ITN) increased from 33 to 68 percent, the number of children under five who slept under those tents rose from 28 to almost 47 percent, and the number of pregnant women who slept under an ITN rose from almost 20 to 43 percent. We also saw an increase in the number of pregnant women in Ghana receiving at least two doses of intermittent preventive therapy from 58 to 68 percent.
Investments in global health will help us to target the symptoms of and forge the pathways out of poverty, as well as provide valuable assistance for our partners in Ghana to effectively deliver services.
Today, on World Malaria Day, I commend the collaborative efforts of the Government of Ghana, local, and global stakeholders, and encourage our partners to accelerate efforts and investments for children and mothers. We must take collective action to invest in the future by defeating malaria. With a strong and sustained global commitment from all of us, we can protect communities from malaria and end preventable maternal and child deaths within a generation.
About USAID
Andrew Karas is the Acting Mission Director for USAID/Ghana. USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential. Since 1961, USAID has supported Ghana in improving basic health care, increasing food security, enhancing access to quality basic education, and strengthening local governance to benefit all Ghanaian people.
