Tema holds malaria awareness campaign

Tema, March 12, GNA - The Tema Municipal Chief Environmental Health Officer, Mr E. Sodja Mensah has urged residents of the municipality to observe clean environmental sanitation to prevent malaria outbreak. Mr Mensah expressed regret that though it had been established that poor sanitation was the major cause of malaria, which is caused by mosquito, people still paid less attention to environmental sanitation.

"If we cleared the bushy areas surrounding our homes and destroyed all stagnant waters we would be destroying the breeding grounds for mosquitoes," he said when speaking at Malaria Awareness Campaign forum organised by the Accra Premier Lions Club at Sakumono, near Tema on Friday.

The Chief Environmental Health Officer said malaria remained a major killer in Africa and that much family resources are spent on its treatment.

Mrs Constance Namon Adda, School Health Co-ordinator and a Counsellor on HIV/AIDS at the Tema Polyclinic, said over three million people died of malaria annually worldwide.

She said malaria accounted for about 70 percent of reported cases at the hospitals, adding that it is the leading cause of death among children below three years.

Malaria also causes low productivity of work due to absence of workers who are suffering from the disease, she added.

Mr William Fearon, Programmes Officer of Accra Lions Club, said the club would make resources available for a massive educational campaign to create awareness among Ghanaians.

Starwin Ghana Limited, a pharmaceutical company, donated some malaria treatment drugs to the Sakumono community.