Features
Zero Malaria for Ghana and Africa, a call to strengthen Action
Eradication of malaria on the African continent continues to be an albatross around the neck of stakeholders who are working tirelessly to rid the continent of the disease entirely.
Unpleasantly, the malaria disease has been a bigger source of worry in our African setting, and the death toll it has placed on the lives of children, pregnant women and men are uncountable.
The conscious effort to combat malaria is a fight that is achievable and a Pan-African movement that is geared towards the elimination of malaria by the year 2030.
Overview of Malaria
Malaria is caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium and is transmitted to humans by bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes during a blood meal.
There are five types of parasites in human malaria (P.falciparum with 90 per cent of its cases considered most dangerous, P. ovale, P. malariae, P. knowlesi and P. vivax.
The symptoms of malaria usually appear 11 to 14 days after an individual is bitten by an infected female Anopheles mosquito.
Some common symptoms include headaches, loss of appetite, chills, vomiting, profuse sweating, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.
Malaria if not treated within 24 hours, could progress to a severe form that is often fatal and some of these severe malaria are hallucinations, delirium, strong fever, repetitive or uncontrollable vomiting, inability to drink or suckle and a lethargic state.
Current Malaria Situation in Ghana
In Ghana, progress has been made in combating malaria. However, the estimated incidence and mortality rates have declined by 28 per cent and 39 per cent respectively between 2010 and 2017.
This equates to three million fewer cases and seven thousand fewer deaths each year.
That, notwithstanding, malaria continues to pose one of the greatest health risks in Ghana, placing a substantial burden on health workers and dramatically increasing costs on the national health insurance scheme.
Distastefully, the most up-to-date figures in Ghana show that malaria results in 30 per cent of outpatient and 23 per cent of inpatient visits at public health facilities.
It also results in 6.5 million cases and an estimated deaths of 11,000.
In addition, a research into the economic impact of malaria over the next 10 years in Ghana found malaria at current levels will cost Ghanaians US$32 billion including a US$ 2 billion in health system expenditures and one billion missed days of work among employees.
It would also result in US$29 billion private sector losses and a US$ 580 million in reduced household income.
In view of the facts provided, what is needed now is sustained commitment and resource allocation to drive further progress.
The Multi sectorial Fight
Despite the surge in COVID-19 cases, malaria still remains a canker to our health and our health institutions work hard to control both menace, though we have lived with malaria over decades.
The fight against malariamust be a multi sectorial approach in order to achieve the elimination of malaria by 2030.
This means that, the fight against malaria must be taken seriously by all and sundry in order to achieve a malaria-free future for Ghana.
I believe that, regardless of whoever we are and whatever we do, assumes responsibility and the bold steps to take actions in fighting malaria, then the aspirational vision to eliminate malaria would become a reality.
While the communities keep rid of stagnated water and keep a clean environment, gradually, malaria would find its way out of our communities.
Malaria and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
It is satisfying that, the SDG’s is concentrating on good health and wellbeing as stated in the Sustainable Development Goal 3.
In the SDG goal 3.3, it stipulates and captures malaria as a concern agenda.
It states that, by 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases.
The Zero Malaria Starts with Me, a continent-wide campaign for a malaria free Africa is firmly situated within the Sustainable Development Goals framework, and endorsed by over 150 countries across the globe, including Ghana.
Malaria has long been classified as not only a grave health issue, but as intersecting with other key development issues.
Role of African Media and Malaria Research Network
The media is a crucial advocacy partner in the fight against malaria in diverse forms.
Media would help in driving the conversation as a primary means through which the general public receives information and how a national conversation is stimulated.
Dr. Charity Binka, the Founder and Executive Secretary, hascalled on journalists to support the elimination of malaria in Ghana as a national agenda.
She reiterated her commitment not to relent on her efforts until malaria is totally eliminated in Africa.
Dr. Binka indicated that the media has impact on influencers and decision makersand this will make those in positions of influence and decision-making to take issues seriously.
Vaccination
The new malaria vaccine (RTS,S/ASO1) is the way to go in eliminating malaria as a killer.
Mr John Tanko Bawa, Country Coordinator of PATH Ghana admonished Ghanaians to embrace the vaccines because it is safe and does not have any repercussion on one’s health.
He assured that the vaccines will help improve the fight against malaria in Ghana.
According to him, 35 districts in seven regions were participating in the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP).
The MVIP is the new agreement that would increase the fight against malaria in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi to cover the rest of African continent as a pilot project.
He revealed that, about 500,000 children hadreceived the first dose of the malaria vaccine in the three participating African countries since 2019 when the pilot programme was incepted.
Malaria Campaigns
In the context of elimination of malaria, the role of various partners and stakeholders is paramount.
The “Roll Back Malaria” partnership launched the “Zero Malaria Starts with Me” campaign few years ago and this campaign is to strengthen the response to malaria.
The Zero Malaria Starts With Me is a Pan-African movement aimed at bringing all sectors of society into the combat against malaria.
Since the endorsement by all 54 Heads of State of the African Union in July 2018, “Zero Malaria Starts With Me” has been gathering momentum and now 15 countries have formally launched their national campaigns.
In 2019, the First Lady of Ghana, Rebecca Akuffo Addo launched the campaign in the country.
Treatment
It is very dangerous to treat yourself malaria without testing positive to it, hence there is the need for testing before treating.
We can prevent and treat malaria in simple practices as follows,
- Seek medical assistance and a malaria test as soon as symptoms appear.
- Sleep under an insecticide-treated mosquito net every night and all year.
- Take prevention drugs, especially for pregnant women and children.
- By Alfred Nii Arday Ankrah
- The writer is a Health Journalist and a Member of the Zero Malaria Coalition (AMMREN).
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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