Malaria cases in Builsa South to reduce by 75%

The Builsa South District Health Directorate is targeting to reduce the incidence of malaria cases by 75 per cent among children below age five and pregnant women which presently stands at 7,828 cases.

The Health Directorate had for the past four years reduced the 2010 figure of 15,657 by half as at the end of 2014.

Madam Mary Vera Anafo, the District Director of Health Services, said this at a one-day sensitization workshop organized for healthcare practitioners in collaboration with the Institute of Social Research and Development (ISRAD), a national and community based NGO on Behavior Change Communication (BCC) at Fumbisi.

She explained that the Directorate took measures, including the distribution of insecticide impregnated bed nets and sensitization of the people on how to stop the breeding of mosquitoes.

The workshop among others was aimed at encouraging health workers to move from the clinical or presumptive method of diagnosis and treatment of malaria to a more scientific method, using Microscopes and Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT).

Madam Anafo advised the health practitioners to always endeavor to carry out scientific test or RDT to confirm the presence of the malaria parasite in patients before commencing treatment.

She was optimistic that the workshop would equip the healthcare givers with the requisite knowledge to effectively diagnose and attend to cases of malaria.

She was hopeful that after the workshop, practitioners would start using the microscope and Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) to diagnose and treat malaria cases in their various health facilities.

The District has a population of 88,514.