76 DISTRICTS, 4 REGIONS PILOT MALARIA VACCINE THIS YEAR-NMCP

The World Health Organization, WHO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other partners, is to pilot the malaria vaccine in 76 selected districts in the country this year as part of a global strategy towards the malaria elimination agenda. 

Ghana is one of three African countries that have volunteered to pilot the vaccine named   RTS, S/AS01. The Deputy Director of Programmes at the National Malaria Control Programme, James Frimpong who made this known in Kumasi assured that enough mechanisms have been put in place already by the project partners to protect the health and lives of all the people who will be participating in the exercise and therefore appealed for maximum cooperation. 

He was addressing participants of a media capacity training workshop in Kumasi. 

Selected journalists from the nine regions constituting the northern sector of the country participated in the two-day capacity training course in Malaria to enhance their role in promoting the Malaria Elimination Agenda.

 It was organized by the National Malaria Control Programme in collaboration with the African Media and Malaria Research Network, AMMREN with experts taking the participants through carefully selected topics bothering on Global strategies on malaria and the elimination agenda, malaria control in Ghana, malaria control in Ghana, the new Malaria Vaccine as well as malaria case management in pregnancy with a field trip to the Suntreso District Hospital to learn at first hand malaria case management there. 

The Deputy Director of Programmes at the National Malaria Control Programme, James Frimpong, said 76 districts have been selected in the Central, Volta, Bono and Upper East regions for the piloting phase of the Malaria Vaccine, the RTS, S/AS01 with an estimated 150 thousand children in those areas to participate for at least 30 months. 

Mr. Frimpong assured that enough measures are being instituted, including effective communication strategy, to safeguard the health of Ghanaians, especially the children to participate in the programme. 

The intervention, he assured, is part of a global effort at substantially reducing the burden of malaria in the 11 known endemic countries, 10 of which are in Africa. 

Another official of the National Malaria Control Programme, Mildred Komey, who took the participants through Malaria in Pregnancy, disclosed that pregnant women are four times more likely to get malaria and twice at risk of death due to certain peculiar changes in their body. 

She noted that the placenta developed during pregnancy offers a new site for parasite colonization whiles her immune system decreases making her highly vulnerable to the malaria parasite. Also, the increased blood flow in the skin and release of greater amount of carbon dioxide make such women more attractive to mosquitoes that carry the parasite. 

Madam Komey therefore urged the media to promote public education on why pregnant women must take ante natal clinics and the direct observation treatment popularly known as SP throughout the gestation period very serious so as to protect themselves and the unborn baby safe from malaria.