Clinicians must stop treating malaria without conducting test- NMCP

Dr. Keziah Malm, Deputy Manager, National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), on Tuesday chastised doctors and clinicians for diagnosing people of malaria without conducting verification tests on them.

She said the practice was not in consonance with the malaria treatment procedure, and that such diagnoses may bring unnecessary financial burden on the country.

Dr. Malm was speaking at a two-day Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) workplace malaria control strategy development and training of malaria safe agents and trainers at Kpetoe, near Ho.

The training, on the theme, “Turning the Revenue Makers into Malaria Champions: A true demonstration of corporate responsibility,” was a collaboration involving GRA Johns Hopkins University-Center for Communication Programmes-Voices (JHU-CCP-Voices) and the NMCP.

Dr. Malm said it was wrong for clinicians to assume that because malaria was endemic in the country, anybody who appeared before them with symptoms similar to those of malaria was suffering from malaria.

She said while it was true that some health facilities did not have Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits for testing malaria, many doctors and clinicians by practice, would rather quickly prescribe malaria drugs for their patients than ask for tests before.

“We are just lucky that the malaria drug does not kill, if not, our doctors will surely be killing more, trying to cure them,” Dr. Malm stated.

Dr. Malm said though the national prevalence had dropped, malaria cases in Upper-East and Upper-West regions were on the rise, which called for serious attention.

She commended the GRA for instituting a workplace malaria control programme and challenged other public institutions to do same.

Mr. Anthony E. Minlah, Commissioner for Support Services, GRA, asked employees of the Authority to see malaria as their “hidden enemy” and fight it rather than over promotions, allowances and transfers.

“You must be in good health to enjoy your promotion and allowances,” he said. Mr. Minlah said the Authority lost quite a number of personnel through bad lifestyles last year and this year and hoped the partnership with NMCP and Johns Hopkins would help workers change their lifestyles and be healthy to deliver their best to the nation.

Madam Adriana Ignea, GRA Employees Workplace Programme Coordinator described the NMCP as the best in the World and was hopeful the collaboration would help staff of the GRA.

She said the programme would be sustained and decentralized to benefit workers of GRA and their families across the country.

Mr. Emmanuel Fiagbe, Country Director of JHU-CCP-Voices said the main aim of the training was to enable health focal persons of the GRA to develop strategies and programmes of action for promoting malaria control activities at all locations and operational communities of the Authority.