Malaria continues to ravage Awutu-Senya District

Awutu Beraku (C/R), Jan 16, GNA - The Awutu-Senya District Director of Health Services, Mrs Patricia Antwi, has said malaria continues to be the number one cause of morbidity in the district.

She said this at the 2011 Annual Performance Review meeting of the Service at Awutu Beraku, under the theme “Strengthening the District Health System to achieve the Millennium Development Goals”.

Mrs Antwi said as part of efforts to reduce malaria in the district, the directorate distributed about 100,000 treated mosquito nets in the district and in 2011 the directorate established 4 out of the six targeted CHPS zones.

She appealed for financial support to enable the directorate to achieve its targets.

Mrs Antwi said the Directorate received support from Grameen Foundation to implement Mobile Technology for Community Health (MoTeCH) for all health facilities in the district and that 4,588 pregnant women had so far registered under the programme.

She said 3,589 out of the number had registered with the Mobile Midwife to receive health education messages on pregnancy and child care and as a result of the programme there had been improvement in data management on pregnant women in the district.

Mrs Antwi said the district had implemented a Nutrition and Malaria for Child Survival project in 52 communities and under the project, 277 volunteers from the 52 communities had been trained to conduct monthly growth promotion sessions of children less than two years old.

She said the aim of the project was to reduce the high rate of malnutrition among children in that age bracket.