Mothers asked to continue use of insecticide treated mosquito nets

Sunyani (B/A), Jan. 28, GNA - Sunyani Municipal Health Directorate has concluded its 2008 review meeting with a call on mothers to continue to use insecticide treated mosquito bed nets for their children. A statement signed by Dr David A. Opare, Municipal Director of Health Services, said malaria cases for children above five years in the region had declined marginally. The year 2007 recorded 103,274 cases of malaria but it reduced by 5.4 per cent to 87,317 last year. It said deaths due to complicated malaria also reduced from 4.2 per cent from 2007 to 4.0 per cent in 2008.

The statement attributed the achievement to the intensification of health education on malaria, distribution of insecticide treated bed nets to children and improvement in case management of the disease. For HIV/AIDS, the statement said a total of 434 cases with 84 deaths were recorded for 2007, whilst 535 cases with 112 deaths were recorded in 2008.

Every one, the statement reiterated, is at risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS and called for faithfulness among partners while those who cannot abstain to always remember to use condoms. "Talk about HIV/AIDS openly and frankly encourage your friends, family and community members to protect themselves," the statement added. It said, however that, viral hepatitis rose slightly from 205 cases in 2007 to 210 in 2008 and noted that deaths attributable to the disease had decreased by 3.4 per cent. "Malnutrition cases have started showing a downward trend from 379 in 2007 to 234 in 2008. The percentage of anaemia cases to the total out patient cases has increased from 1,905 in 2007 to 1,485 in 2008," the statement added.

Diabetes went up from 1,131 cases in 2007 to 1,152 cases in 2008, whilst hypertension reduced from 4,114 cases in 2007 to 3,617 cases in 2008. The statement paraphrased Mrs Florence Offei, Sunyani Municipal Public Health Nurse, who encouraged people to promote healthy lifestyles through good nutrition, to engage in regular exercise, recreation, rest and personal hygiene. She announced that a total of 2,559 maternal deliveries were recorded in 2007 as against 2,992 deliveries in 2008.