By Razak Baba
The Ashanti Regional Health Directorate has begun the registration of households for mass distribution of Long-Lasting Insecticide Nets. The week-long exercise which forms part of measures being implemented in the fight against malaria is expected to register at least one-point-five million households across all districts in the region with the exception of Obuasi Municipality and Obuasi East District. This is due to an on-going indoor residual Spraying in the two jurisdictions.
Speaking to our Ashanti Regional Correspondent Razak Baba, the Ashanti Regional Director of Health, Dr. Emmanuel Tenkorang said more than 4,000 trained registration assistants with identification tags and Ghana health service branded T-shirts have been deployed to undertake the exercise.
Dr. Tenkorang said the proportion of in-patient deaths attributed to malaria decreased drastically from 2019 to 2021, with under-five malaria case fatality falling by 60 per cent within the same period. Dr. Tenkorang said the Ashanti Region’s progress in malaria control mirrored the national statistics.
Despite these successes chalked up, Ghana remained one of 10 sub-Saharan African countries that contributed to about 70 % global cases and deaths, while imposing huge expenditure on the National Health Insurance Scheme.