Positive malaria cases in the Adaklu district have dropped to 6,282 in 2022 from the previous figure of 15,340 in 2021.
In 2021, there were 65,212 OPD cases out of which 32,092 were tested and 15,340 tested positive.
Mr Samuel Atidzah, Executive Director of GOSANET Foundation, a Health Non-Governmental Organization disclosed this at a community engagement as part of the Malaria Prevention and Control Community Sensitization Project by his outfit at Adaklu Tsriefe at the weekend.
He said the goal of the project was to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality by 75 per cent and also protect 80 per cent of the population with malaria interventions by 2025.
Mr Atidzah mentioned the beneficiary communities in the district as Torda, Wumenu, Kodzobi, Agblefe, Tsriefe, Goefe, Waya, Anfoe and Abuadi.
The others he said were Ahunda Kpodzi, Ahunda Boso, Sikama, Have, Helekpe, Hehekpoe, Kpodzi and Alavanyo.
He said there were 41489 OPD cases in 2022 and 16395 were tested out of which 6282 tested positive.
He noted 97 out of 143 pregnant women identified in the 17 beneficiary communities were on Intermittent Preventive Treatment for pregnant women.
Mr Atidzah noted that the drop in malaria cases in the district was due to a number of factors including the sensitization of communities by his outfit, the relentless support by the District Health Directorate and volunteers and the use of Insecticide-treated mosquito nets.
He appealed to the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) to make adequate budgetary allocations for capacity building and refresher training activities for all stakeholders.
The Executive Director also called for the timely release of project funds to ensure that all programmes under the Project were carried out as planned and on time.
He said so far 50 Community-Based Advocates (CBAs) were trained for the various phases of the project and were now serving as resource persons working on health and malaria issues in their communities in the district.
He intimated that traditional and religious leaders and assembly members were also supervising the work of the CBAs in the beneficiary communities of the Project.
Mr Atidzah told the Ghana News Agency that the CBAs had reached out to 5224 community members in the implementation communities between September and November, last year.
He called on all stakeholders in the beneficiary communities to take the project as their own in order to sustain and achieve its goal.
Mr Atidzah advised against taking herbal concoctions for the treatment of malaria, especially pregnant women and appealed to them to be regular at the antenatal clinic.
