GHS Begins Annual Malaria Campaign
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) says it has begun the annual Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) Campaign in the Northern regions.
“The SMC is a malaria preventive intervention method whereby children between the ages of 3-59 months of age are dosed with anti-malaria drugs (Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine plus Amodiaquine) to prevent them from getting malaria disease when they are bitten by infected anopheles mosquitoes.”
This intervention, according to the GHS, complements other malaria interventions such as the use of Insecticide Treated bed nets, Indoor Residual Spraying, Case Management, Larval Source Management, RTS S Malaria Vaccine and the use of Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine in pregnant women to prevent malaria infection.
The malaria campaign programme will be featured in the Upper East, Upper West, Oti, Bono East, North East, Northern, and Savanna Regions.
Dosing in the Upper East, Upper West, Oti, and the Bono East Regions commences today, June 27, 2022, to 3rd July 2022 while the dosing for the second cluster of regions, that is the Northern, Savanna and North East is scheduled for 11th to 17th July 2022.
“The programme was piloted in 2015, in all districts in the Upper West region, scaled up to all districts in the Upper East region in 2016, Northern, North East, and Savannah regions in 2019, and Oti and Bono East in 2021 based on the impact it had on malaria morbidity and mortality in the piloted region. Results from an evaluation study conducted in 2015 indicated that target children in SMC implementation areas have a 45% protection against severe malaria cases compared to children in non-implementation areas in similar settings.”
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
