Mr Emmanuel Fiagbey, Country Director of John Hopkins University, Centre for Communication Programme has called on government to implement the one per cent statutory provision set aside in the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) for active, practical support and participation in planning and implementation of malaria control programmes in the districts.
He said ACT 445 Section 8 of DACF stipulated the deduction of one per cent of funds towards the utilisation of initiatives for the prevention and control of malaria at the district level.
Mr Fiagbey said currently only 0.5 per cent of DACF was being allocated to malaria prevention and control but in some circumstances such funds were re-directed to other developmental priority needs of the district's economy.
He made the call at the Hohoe Municipal Malaria Advocacy Team's (HMMAT) Training and Action Plan Development workshop in Hohoe.
A 14-member Executive of HMMAT was elected with Togbega Gabusu, Paramount Chief of Gbi Traditional Area as Chairman, to draw a malaria advocacy plan based on the municipality's key issues and in line with the national control and preventive policies.
Mr Fiagbey, who is also the Director of Voices of Malaria-Free Future, Ghana suggested that the Fund be paid directly into the District Malaria Accounts as pertained in the water and sanitation sectors to fast track policies towards reduction of the malaria scourge from the society.
He said the disease accounted for an average of 11 per cent of all mortality cases in Ghana and 33 per cent of under-five mortalities.
About 20,000 lives are lost to malaria each year, in the total number of reported cases at health institutions, 13.8 per cent suffer the disease and 9.4 per cent of deaths in pregnant women.
Mr Fiagbey said the burden of malaria in Ghana in 2002 obtained through the cost of illness approach was estimated at 2.63 dollars per capita or 13.51 dollars per household.
This estimated average per capita cost of the disease was equivalent to 9.74 per cent of per capita health expenditure in the same year.
He noted that from the macroeconomic perspective, an econometric model found malaria to have a negative effect on real GDP growth.
It was estimated that for every one per cent increase in the malaria morbidity rate, real GDP growth would slow by 0.41 per cent.
Mr Fiagbey emphasised that the malaria menace had therefore become a developmental problem, which demanded a multi-sectoral approache to combat it totally.
Mrs Eve Passah, Acting Hohoe Municipal Director of Health Services said malaria cases continued to dominate the top 10 causes of OPD attendance recording a total of 33,350 patients between the first half of 2008.
She said it recorded 67 malaria deaths in children above five-years out of 26,482 cases and 19 deaths in under five-years in 6,327 cases with 541 pregnant cases.
Mrs Passah said in 2007, the municipality recorded 29 malaria deaths out of 32,475 cases for above five-years and eight deaths out of 4,214 cases under five-years.
She said 7,131 cases were recorded for pregnant women with a total of 43,820 malaria cases recorded at public and private health facilities.
Mrs Passah attributed the high incidence of cases to poor environmental sanitation due to the numerous and uncovered drainages scattered in the communities, over simplified diagnosis of malaria without laboratory test, non use of insecticide treated nets (ITN) and poor personal hygiene.
She said other common diseases were acute respiratory infections, intestinal worms, anaemia, diarrhoea, hypertension, Tuberculosis, acute eye infections and onchocerciasis, rheumatism and joint pains, occupational and home accidents.
Mrs Passah said interventions undertaken included promotion and distribution of ITNs, community education programmes, capacity building of key stakeholders including health workers and community volunteers.
Togbega Gabusu pledged on behalf of the committee to work assiduously towards achieving the targets set for the HMMAT and called for conscious environmental cleanliness.