Panellists call for right strategies to eliminate malaria
Panellists at a research dissemination forum have said the country can make progress in the reduction of the burden of malaria and move closer to the goal of elimination if the right strategies are adopted.
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They, therefore, called for continuous collaboration and enhanced capacity building by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to overcome the challenges bedevilling the fight against malaria.
Dubbed: “National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP): Addressing Programmatic Bottlenecks”, the forum discussed the challenges that continue to impede the country’s progress towards malaria control and elimination.
The forum, organised by the GHS, was on the theme: “Driving Participation, Innovation and Excellence In the Network of Practice (NoP): The Role of Health Research”.
The event brought together key stakeholders to examine both the biological and non-biological challenges in the fight against malaria, while proposing strategic interventions aimed at overcoming those barriers.
Resistance
The Programme Manager of the National Malaria Elimination Programme, Dr Keziah Malm, said the growing resistance to insecticides and antimalarial drugs were a challenge in the fight against the disease.
"The resistance that we keep getting to our insecticides and medicines is a purely technical, purely biological challenge," she said.
That, she said, was deeply rooted in the science of malaria control, hence the demand for innovative solutions and vigilance.
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Dr Malm said the fight against malaria was not just about scientific advancements but about ensuring adequate and sustained support for the initiatives.
She stressed the need for more effective allocation of resources, adding that “the gap between the strategic plans and the available funding is what hinders the full realisation of malaria control programmes”.
Dr Malm further emphasised the need for better collaboration between training institutions and health services.
She advocated regular curriculum revisions in medical and nursing schools to ensure that new graduates were equipped with the most current knowledge and skills in malaria control.
"It's about working with the leadership so that there's constant collaboration, making sure that trainers are part of us and we are also part of the training institutions," she said.
ITNs
The Programme Officer of the Disease Prevention and Control of the School of Health Education Programme Unit (SHEP) of the GES, Ernest Amoah Ampah, called for more education on malaria prevention, particularly among young students.
He acknowledged the challenges in changing behaviour, especially regarding the use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) among school children.
"The current bottlenecks that we face are the low active, or let me say, the resistance to positive behaviour change," he noted.
He identified the reluctance to adopt positive behavioural changes, such as the consistent use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), as a major bottleneck.
He said GES was making efforts to engage parents and school authorities in encouraging students to use ITNs consistently, both at school and at home.
He said that while children in boarding schools were slow to adopt this practice, the responsibility also laid with parents who might not be committed to enforcing this preventive measure at home.
"It's more of an engagement that we continue to do with our parent associations, to encourage them to support the young ones," he said.
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Continuous Training
A Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Institute of Health Research, University of Health and Allied Sciences , Professor Evelyn Ansah, emphasised the need for continuous training for healthcare providers and trainers.
She said while GHS extensively trained service providers, they often overlooked the need to update the trainers themselves.
"When the training is being planned, the trainers must be brought up to date, so that by the time people come out to work, they know what's the most current situation," she added.
Prof. Ansah said there was a disconnect between research findings and clinical practice, saying,”healthcare providers often disregard test results that show a negative malaria diagnosis, opting instead to treat based on outdated assumptions”.
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She underscored the need for more effective training and adherence to evidence-based practices, adding that , "Providers' response and behaviour, in spite of all the training, is a major bottleneck”.
Holistic approach
The Regional Director of Health Service, Bono East Region, Dr Fred Adomako -Boateng, underscored the need for a holistic approach to malaria control, saying ,”one that considers not only the technical and biological aspects but also the socio-cultural dynamics that influence health behaviours in communities”:
He said there was the need to consider the socio-cultural dynamics that influencer health behaviours in communities.
In an interview with the Director of Public Health, GHS, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, he said the country had developed a strategic plan to eliminate malaria in 21 districts by the end of 2028, and stressed the need for a collective effort to achieve this target.
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“Today, 95 per cent of malaria cases are confirmed through testing, a marked improvement from a decade ago when only 10 per cent were based on quality tests,” he said.
He said efforts were also being made to educate and engage community pharmacists, ensuring they had access to test kits and were trained to use them effectively.
Background
The National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) was established to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality rate by 75 per cent, using 2012 as a baseline, by the year 2020.
As part of efforts to achieve the programme’s target, Insecticide Resistance Monitoring (IRM) activity has been initiated to generate sustainable countrywide data of insecticide susceptibility levels among malaria vector population in the country through the collection of larvae, running of tests, collation of data and laboratory analysis.