The Government has been urged to ensure that Artemisenin based Combination Therapies (ACTs) that have been jointly recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the Ministry of Health for malaria treatment as part of global efforts to fight the disease, become accessible and affordable in the country.
The ACTs, which include Artesunate-Amodiaquine, Arthemeter-Lumefantrine and Quinine, experts claim, had proved effective for treating malaria, despite initial complaints by users when it was first introduced.
Making the call at a workshop held at Juaso in the Asante-Akim South District, Mr. Paul Kofi Adjei, a Chemical Seller and member of the District Malaria Advocacy Team (DMAT), said as key players in the health sector initiated moves to make the Minister of Health to sign the new Malaria Drug Policy, the prescription of Chloroquine and other monotherapies by medical practitioners would soon become illegal.
He said this would pave the way for the sole reliance on ACTs for the treatment of malaria in the country, the target set by WHO and the Health Ministry.
Mr. Agyei said there was the need to make sure that poor people, who were more vulnerable to the disease, would be able to buy the drug and have access to it.
He expressed concern that the price of the drug beyond the reach of the poor and also hard to come by in the rural areas, apart from the health facilities.
Mr. Emmanuel Fiagbey, Country Director of John Hopkins University, Center for Communication Programmes (JHU/CCP), told the GNA that WHO through the Roll Back Malaria Programme would soon launch an "Affordable Medicine Facility" for malaria.
He said under the programme, pharmaceutical companies in selected countries including Ghana would sell malaria drugs at affordable prices.