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Malaria as deadly as AIDS - doctor warns
According to the World Health Organisation, about half of the world population are at risk of malaria.
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Sub-Saharan Africa carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2015, the region was home to 88% of malaria cases and 90% of malaria deaths.
However, addressing a durbar on the occasion of World Malaria Day, Dr Antobre Boateng, the Deputy Eastern Regional Health Director in-charge of Public Health, said many Ghanaians still take malaria for granted, warning that it is deadly as AIDS.
Available data shows malaria infection is reducing but Dr Boateng indicated that health officers in-charge of malaria control in the region are unrelenting in executing their tasks to reducing malaria cases to a very low figure."Key indicators like fatalities in children under five, is reducing and we won't be complacent," he said.
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Dr Constance Bart-Plange, the Malaria Control Programme Manager, in April 2016 disclosed that Ghana has achieved 45 percent reduction in malaria-related deaths from 2010 to 2015, due to improved case management.
She said the figures saw further downward trends recording 2,200 deaths representing 7.2 per cent in 2014 and subsequently 2,137 which was seven per cent in 2015, GNA reported.
At the durbar, residents were urged to desist from using the treated nets for farming and instead sleep in them to prevent malaria. In 2014, Ghanaian Businesses spent over GH¢20 million alone on Malaria.
Additionally, ninety per cent of the total cost was direct costs with the remaining 10 percent being indirect cost due to absenteeism.
Malaria has so far resulted in the loss of 30 working days for each employee annually, according to the National Malaria Control Programme.
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