, for how long shall we continue to say it?
The Executive Director of Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa has reiterated hiscall for civil society groups and governments in sub-Saharan Africato take President Obama's visit to sub-Saharan African soil as an opportunity to push forpolicy change in the handling of malaria.
Hayford Siaw's call came during an interview on Choice fm 102.3, an Accra-basedradio station last Tuesday, and marks an unprecedented effort on his part forpolicy change on malaria programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.
He chronicled the methodology used by United States and Canada and some partsof Europe in eliminating the scourge of this deadly disease and hinted that,President Obama would ‘’by all means’’ mention his country’s efforts incombating diseases on the African continent, including malaria.
Mr Siaw said: "It is important to let him know that, the President’sMalaria Initiative (PMI) which is a direct contribution by the US governmentin fighting the disease along with the Global Fund and other donors are notbeing used properly.
"It is time to stop the game of controlling the disease and instead takethe serious approach of eradicating it using the same tools the United Statesemployed in defeating malaria."
Mr Siaw wondered why in the 21st century, we should be advocating to 'control'a disease that can be eradicated if leadership in Africaacts upon the use of proven methods.
"Even if mosquito nets were to be 100% used by an individual, itseffectiveness is only 25% and that is why people are still dying. It is time weput the billions of dollars going to purchase nets and 'controlling' thedisease into effective mechanisms of eradicating it."
He buttressed this argument by asking the host of the Choice FM Breakfast show,Mr Alfred Ocansey, if the World Health Organization (WHO) had stopped usingthe 'two people die of malaria a minute' statistic, which he recollects wasused 20 years ago to indicate the impact of malaria in Africa. "That was 20 years ago, is human life such a disposablecommodity," he asked.
Despite the colossal expenditure of over $100 million to combat malaria in Ghana in 2006and 2007, WHO still reports that there is no evidence of decrease in malariacases and reports an increase in deaths.
The Host of the Choice FM Breakfastshow, Mr Alfred Ocansey who had also enquire on the current state of Malaria inGhana from National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) quoted them as sayingMalaria cases for 2008 was less but did not give the figures. The ExecutiveDirector of VPWA ask how sustainable is their so call reduction in figures andquoted from a WHO Malaria report on Ghana that in 2002, there was total deathof 1917 and it was less in 2003 at 1680 but in 2007, death from Malaria hastripled to 4622.
Meanwhile, some critics have argued thatthe aerial insecticide dispensing system that the VPWA Executive Director isadvocating should be introduced in Ghana to defeat malaria. It isbelieved that such a system which could rid the country of the disease in lessthan three years is expensive and we should therefore concentrate on simplemechanism of distributing nets to as much people as possible. Speaking to this reporter,Mr Siaw has described the critics as ‘’failures refusing to think outside thebox’’. He also described critics as been ‘’brainwashed by Malthusians’’.
In his opinion, Human life is expensivethan the method he is suggesting and society must not tolerate people whodesire to suppress population growth in such a way. He also ask why net is beenrecommended and wondered how many mosquito nets was distributed in Europe and America duringtheir fight to eradicate Malaria in those places. He wondered why the GlobalFund will boast it success of fight against Malaria by posting the number ofnets they have been able to distribute without calculating the life saved ifany on their website.
