The Upper West Region has, over the last three years, seen a slight improvement in its fight against the elimination of malaria.

While malaria-related deaths declined from 10 in 2022 to six in 2023, last year saw a slight rise in the fatality rate, recording eight deaths.

All eight deaths recorded last year were children; four were under five, while the other four were above five years, with six of those deaths being recorded in the Wa Municipality.

However, the total number of people who tested positive for malaria reduced from 266,484 in 2022 to 261,221 in 2023 and to 233,490 in 2024.

The Deputy Regional Director in charge of Public Health of the Upper West Region, Dr Collins Boateng Danquah, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the Wa Municipality and the Wa West District have, for the past three years, recorded the highest number of malaria cases.

While the Wa Municipality recorded 68,340 cases in 2022, out of the 68,339 that were tested, 30,517 came out positive, and in 2023, out of the 68,795 cases that were tested, 30,543 were positive, while last year, out of 70,779 malaria cases tested, 25,771 were positive.

Similarly, for the Wa West District, 59,429 suspected cases of malaria were tested, and 38,746 proved positive for malaria in 2022 and in 2023, the district tested 58,418 cases, out of which 38,315 were positive. In 2024, a total of 57,735 cases were tested, and 34,858 were positive.   

The other districts that recorded high cases of malaria included Nadowli, Sissala East and Jirapa, with each of them recording more than 20,000 positive cases over the last few years.

Interventions

Dr Danquah said the region had adopted a variety of interventions in its fight to eliminate malaria.

These include the distribution of Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs) and children of 18 months receiving Measles-Rubella second dose and pregnant women (1st registrants).

The region also undertakes indoor residual spraying, which is being implemented by the AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control and the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), targeting children from three to 59 months.

In addition to these, he said children under five were also given malaria vaccine and pregnant women who attended antenatal care were given Intermittent Preventive Therapy for pregnant women (IPTp) and Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine (SP) for children as part of their routine childhood vaccinations.  

Challenges

Notwithstanding all these, Dr Danquah said some challenges were inhibiting the progress of the efforts of the region to eliminate malaria.

He said the region would need more funding to support malaria activities such as monitoring and supervision of facilities, and also organising training for malaria case management.

Even with these challenges, he believed that if some of the cases were reported early to the health facilities, some of the lives lost could have been avoided.

He, thus, appealed to the populace to avoid self-medication and to report early to the health facilities for testing and treatment.