GHS unveils plans to tackle neglected tropical diseases
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has launched the 2014 Mass Drug Administration and a five-year master plan for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in the country.
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The launch of the two programmes coincided with the celebration of the Global One-Billionth Treatment of NTDs.
Under the master plan, the GHS and its supporting partners are to work towards the prevention, control, elimination or even eradication of NTDs by 2020.
Neglected tropical diseases
The NTDs are a group of 17 parasitic and bacterial infections that affect over 1.4 billion people worldwide, especially women, children and those living in remote areas with limited access to effective health care in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Launching the plan at a ceremony in Accra yesterday, the outgoing Minister of Health, Ms Sherry Ayittey, said Ghana was currently burdened with 10 NTDs, notable among them being lymphatic filariasis (popularly called elephantiasis), onchocerciasis, trachoma, bilharzia, buruli ulcer and leprosy.
She said the government had put in place policies and programmes to help address the illnesses and deaths associated with those diseases.
According to the outgoing minister, the diseases currently being targeted by the NTD programme in Ghana were trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminths with the strategies of mass drug administration, morbidity control and public education.
Ms Ayittey said other neglected diseases, such as Buruli ulcer, leprosy, and yaws were being managed and implemented as disease specific programmes under the Public Health Division of the ministry.
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She said lymphatic filariasis had an at-risk population of about 12 million people living in 98 districts in Ghana, while onchocerciasis had a population of about four million people living in 63 districts.
USAID support
The acting USAID/Ghana Mission Director, Mr Peter Trenchard, said NTDs mostly affected the exclusively poor and powerless people living in rural and urban slums of low-income countries.
He said USAID was supporting 25 countries to introduce and scale-up integrated NTD control programmes and Ghana was one of the focus countries.
“Together, we are investing in the health of Ghanaians and achieving great results and our fight against NTDs is part of the success,” he said.
Dr Nana Kwadwo Biritwum, the Programme Manager of NTDs, said every district in Ghana had one or two of the neglected tropical diseases and urged all stakeholders to rally behind the plan to achieve positive results.
Dr Mrs Joyce Aryee, an Ambassador for NTDs in Ghana, indicated that those diseases were not given sufficient attention, noting that due to their tropical nature, everybody was at risk.