Chloroquine treatment of malaria banned in Ghana

Koforidua, Oct. 18, GNA - The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), has insisted that chloroquine has lost its efficacy for the treatment of malaria and urged the public to desist from using it for the treatment of malaria.

According to the NMCP, chloroquine now cures only 25 per cent of malaria cases treated with it, whiles the combined therapy of the artesonate amodiaquin had proved to cure 97 per cent of malaria cases. Mr Kwame Gakpey, of the NMCP, said this in a presentation on malaria treatment, at a workshop for journalist in the Eastern Region, in Koforidua, at the weekend.

He said currently, chloroquine had been banned for the treatment of all malaria related cases in the country.

Mr Gakpey said the change from the use of chloroquine to the combined therapy of artesonate amodiaquin or coartem was backed by law, therefore any health facility using chloroquine for the treatment of malaria could be charged for breeching the law.

He said initially, because pharmacy shops and that of health facilities had a lot of stock of the chloroquine, it was allowed to phase out gradually and that by now it is expected that, the drug is out of the system.

Mr Gakpey said, although malaria was a dangerous disease, it was curable and that deaths occur from malaria because of poor management and late access to effective treatment.

Currently, statistics indicate that, 4,500 deaths occur from malaria in Ghana, including 1,500 children under five years and 60 pregnant women annually, and urged the public to be conscious of their health and insist on combined therapy treatment for malaria without any compromise.

He urged the media to use their mediums to educate the public on the ineffectiveness of chloroquine in the treatment of malaria and to alert the institutions responsible for ensuring that the drug was not imported or manufactured, "let alone sold over the counter". According to Mr Gakpey, people were still skeptical about the ineffectiveness of chloroquine, because it might work for them, but was emphatic that the use of single drug treatment for malaria was not the best in terms of managing the disease.