Malaria, most reported disease at Juaso Hospital

Juaso (Ash), Aug 8, GNA- Malaria has for the fourth consecutive year remained the most reported disease at the Out Patients Department (OPD) of the Juaso District Hospital in the Asante Akim-South District. Out of 32,394 OPD attendances between January and June this year, 11,296 were Malaria related cases, showing an increase of 2,135 of the previous year's 9,162 within the same period.

Miss. Christiana Aidoo, the District Director of Health Services, disclosed this at the directorate's half-year performance review meeting at Juaso on Wednesday.

The meeting that assessed the performance of the directorate and strategize the way forward, was attended by traditional rulers, Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA's), health workers and selected departmental heads.

According to the District Director, 3,545 of the malaria cases reported were children under five years old, indicating that they were the most vulnerable to the disease and stressed on the need for women, especially mothers to patronize treated mosquito bed nets to help check the spread of malaria.

Miss. Aidoo also mentioned malaria, cough, hypertension, skin diseases, joint conditions, diabetes, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and hernia as the top ten causes of OPD attendance.

On HIV/AIDS, she said out of 1,401 persons screened, 34 tested positive to the disease, representing 2.4 per cent as against 361 screened in 2007 with 23 testing positive, representing 6.4 per cent. Miss Aidoo lamented that the directorate lacked adequate staff and residential accommodation, affecting health care delivery. Mr. Bernard Fosu, District Disease Control Officer, expressed concern about the increasing rate of malaria in the area and urged the people to keep their environment clean. He said most of the diseases reported at the various health facilities could have been prevented if people had observed environmental hygiene.