THE impact of malaria on the economy of the country, as vividly painted by the Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd) when he met the press in Accra yesterday, gives cause for worry.
According to him, research indicated that the estimated economic cost of malaria was GH¢664.6 or $772.4 million a year. That translates to GH¢30.04 or $32.65 per capita.
It must be noted that this calculation is based on only the number of reported cases of malaria, which is thought to be an underestimation.
To drive home his point, he equated the total economic cost of malaria in a year to more than two times the annual budget of the Ministry of Health (MOH) or the cost of 215,680 metric tonnes of cocoa.
That implies that the country is simply throwing away the wealth it creates on a preventable and avoidable disease.
Malaria is known to be caused by the parasite that is transmitted by the anopheles mosquito.
The basic fact is that when one is not bitten by mosquitoes, one will not get malaria. But the good news is that human and mosquito contact can be avoided through the observance of simple environmental hygiene.
Preventive strategies include sleeping under insecticide treated nets, keeping the environment clean to eliminate the breeding sites of mosquitoes, screening doors and windows of houses to keep mosquitoes out and using Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine (SP) for intermittent and preventive treatment in pregnant women.
Managing the environment involves simple tasks such as properly disposing of our bath water, weeding our compounds, desilting choked gutters, getting rid of stagnant water in empty cans, old and abandoned car tyres, empty coconut shells, potholes and shallow water bodies.
Given the figures quoted by the Health Minister, there is no doubt that actively abating mosquitoes will enhance the economic status of the country.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that the fight against malaria calls for an active national programme involving everybody and targeted at addressing the environmental factors that foster the breeding of mosquitoes, as well as the institution of measures that will prevent contact between human beings and the anopheles mosquito.
These measures which can help us to reduce the menace of malaria lie within our capabilities. Malaria is a preventable disease and if Ghanaians had heeded the calls by health authorities to keep our surroundings clean, the disease would have been controlled by now.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, calls on all to accept that the malaria burden on us could only be reduced through preventive methods and healthy lifestyles. We need a healthy population to assist and contribute their quota towards wealth creation and development because good health culminates in wealth creation and prosperity.
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