17,000 die a year from Malaria in Ghana
17,000 die a year from Malaria
Posted: Nov 03 2005
Two thousand pregnant women and 15,000 children below the age of five died of malaria last year, confirming the disease as the number one killer in the country.
The fatalities resulted from three million reported cases in the year, excluding many other unreported cases. Confirming the figures in Accra on Tuesday, Health Minister Major Courage Quashigah (retd) attributed a quarter of all the cases of child mortality in Ghana to malaria, which he said, was also responsible for 36 per cent of all admissions in the country’s hospitals over the past ten years.
The minister announced this at the launch of the national campaign against malaria in Accra.At the same ceremony artesunate-amodiaquine was declared as the preferred drug for the treatment of malaria because chloroquine had proved ineffective. He said as a result of the staggering statistics on malaria the National Malaria Control Programme supported by the global fund had helped to make strides in the country’s anti- malaria drug policy.
He said in the area of drug policy the country had adopted the use of artesunate amodiaquine combination to treat malaria. Major Quashigah said the combination of atesunate amodiaquine had been highly recommended because it was able to treat nearly 100 per cent of all malaria cases, while choloquine could only treat less than 50 per cent of patients.
Source: Daily Graphic
Posted: Nov 03 2005
Two thousand pregnant women and 15,000 children below the age of five died of malaria last year, confirming the disease as the number one killer in the country.
The fatalities resulted from three million reported cases in the year, excluding many other unreported cases. Confirming the figures in Accra on Tuesday, Health Minister Major Courage Quashigah (retd) attributed a quarter of all the cases of child mortality in Ghana to malaria, which he said, was also responsible for 36 per cent of all admissions in the country’s hospitals over the past ten years.
The minister announced this at the launch of the national campaign against malaria in Accra.At the same ceremony artesunate-amodiaquine was declared as the preferred drug for the treatment of malaria because chloroquine had proved ineffective. He said as a result of the staggering statistics on malaria the National Malaria Control Programme supported by the global fund had helped to make strides in the country’s anti- malaria drug policy.
He said in the area of drug policy the country had adopted the use of artesunate amodiaquine combination to treat malaria. Major Quashigah said the combination of atesunate amodiaquine had been highly recommended because it was able to treat nearly 100 per cent of all malaria cases, while choloquine could only treat less than 50 per cent of patients.
Source: Daily Graphic
posted by Wings of Freedom and Justice | 8:31 AM
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