Malaria fatality decreases among children under five in Ashanti

The Ashanti Region recorded a decrease in the cases of malaria fatality among children under five years from 7.8 in 10,000 cases in 2012 to 4.4 in 10,000 cases in 2014. The decrease also led to a reduction in hospital admissions of children under five years suffering from malaria.

The Regional Director of Health, Dr Alexus Nang-Beifubah, who announced this at the annual Regional Health Review in Kumasi, attributed the success to measures such as health education and environmental sanitation, distribution of insecticide treated nets, accurate and prompt treatment and research into the disease. 

He, however, said the disease continued to be the number one cause of outpatient department (OPD) attendance in health facilities in the region. 

Giving the figures of OPD confirmed malaria cases, he said in 2010, the region recorded 295,447 malaria cases; 422,060 cases in 2011; 451,655 in 2012 ;542,974 cases in 2013 and 506,175 in 2014.

Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV

He described the performance in this area as mixed because according to him, TB case detection decreased slightly from 2,421 in 2013 to 2,387 in 2014 which in absolute terms was the highest in the country but treatment rate was 89 per cent in 2013.

Dr Nang-Beifubah, stated, however, that stigma remained a huge challenge, coupled with inadequate diagnostic centre and poor documentation.

He said TB and HIV co-infection continued to be a big issue because access to Anti-retroviral Treatment (ART)  was still a major challenge due to the fact that 11 out of the 30 districts did not have ART centres.

In HIV, the clients on anti-retroviral dropped from 82 per cent in 2013 to 74 in 2014, while stigma remained a challenge.

Access to health facilities

Dr Nang-Beifubah indicated that there remained wide district variations of access to basic care from the very well-endowed city of Kumasi to the very deprived rural areas and that most of the facilities were located in the city and some selected districts.

He, however, said the year under review saw a boost in the implementation of  Community Health Improvement Service (CHIPS) Compound resulting in the creation of 1,080 CHPS zones in the region.