THE GUINEA WORM, MALARIA MENACE (NOVMBER 8, 2007)

A RENOWNED Ghanaian physician, Professor Joseph Orleans Mends Pobee, recently highlighted the threat posed by guinea worm and malaria in the country. In his view, it was unfortunate that 50 years after independence, Ghana was ranked the second worst country in the world in terms of guinea worm infection and malaria continued to be a major cause of death in the country, especially among children.
Professor Pobee stated the painful truth in the most charitable manner. It is not only unfortunate, but also very much unacceptable and unthinkable that we are in such dire straits as far as the two diseases are concerned.
For many years, we have talked and drawn policies that would eradicate guinea worm and decisively deal with the malaria challenge; for many years the talk has remained talk and the policies have virtually made no impact.
It is, indeed, sad that despite being consistently hailed as one of Africa’s miracle economies, Ghana has the worst infection rate of guinea worm on the continent.
It is estimated that there are close to 7,000 guinea worm cases in Ghana with northern Ghana accounting for more than 90 per cent of such cases. Former US President Jimmy Carter, during a visit to the country early in the year, reportedly complained about the fact that Ghana was the only country in the world that was not making any progress in the eradication of guinea worm.
After visiting Savelugu and horrified by the sight of little children screaming with pain as guinea worm came out from different parts of their bodies, Mr Carter is said to have challenged Ghanaians to “do more to raise public awareness and ensure a sense of urgency to finally put an end to the social injustice of guinea worm, an unnecessary and preventable disease”.
The Daily Graphic absolutely wish to identify with the concerns expressed by the former American President and challenge the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to move beyond the rhetoric and bring action to their words.
For so long we have been saddled with policies that are expected to eradicate guinea worm but which have failed to bring relief to the thousands of Ghanaians suffering as a result of the disease.
Indeed, the country has the capacity to eradicate the disease and there should be a greater commitment by the government to ensure that Ghanaians have safe sources of drinking water as contaminated water and poor sanitation account for the high rate of guinea worm infection in the country.
Similarly, we need to aggressively deal with the malaria challenge that for so long has created financial and social problems. While we recognise that the treatment of malaria can be highly successful if the right drugs are used, we definitely need to remind ourselves of the ever useful idiom that ‘prevention is better than cure’.
Quite recently the Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah, disclosed that the country spent $77 million to treat malaria annually. The Daily Graphic believes that if the appropriate steps are taken to prevent malaria we may not have to spend such huge amounts of money to treat the disease.
Thus, while we still work towards getting effective drugs to ensure that malarial patients get the best treatment, there is the need to intensify education on prevention of the disease by improving sanitation to destroy mosquito breeding places. That is an option we must vigorously pursue.