Accra — The President of the ECOWAS Commission, H.E. James Victor Gbeho on Wednesday, 27th July 2011 called for a continent-wide war against malaria, to stop the mosquito-borne disease from wreaking further human and socio-economic havoc in Africa. "Malaria kills more people than any war in Africa and African people and governments must declare war on the disease and its vector, the mosquito," President Gbeho said at the opening of a three-day Malaria Elimination Campaign in the ECOWAS region, in Accra, Ghana. "We are at war with the mosquitoes and must take measures accordingly to win the war", he said. Calling for a more coordinated, integrated and focused approach to defeat malaria, the ECOWAS President also said there should be a change of attitude, robust political will and ownership of anti-malaria campaigns by all stakeholders. Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds in Africa, accounting for 40 per cent of total government spending on public health and consumes some 25 per cent of household incomes on the continent. Compounded by poverty, the impact of the disease is much more graphic in West Africa, where it is responsible for between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of cumulated absenteeism among both school children and civil servants. Malaria is also the principal cause of morbidity and mortality among children and pregnant women in the region, accounting for 40 per cent of public health expenditure. "In 2015, ECOWAS will be 40 years old. Let us have an ECOWAS of free movement of peoples in an ECOWAS region that is malaria-free," President Gbeho affirmed.
Setting the tone for the anti-malaria campaign in his address of welcome, Ghana's Deputy Health Minister, Honourable Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, described the meeting as timely, noting that malaria "is one of the diseases that is eating up our human, material and financial resources on a daily basis, contributing significantly to our state of under-development status (in Africa". The deputy Minister also called for regional cooperation to build synergy and thanked the ECOWAS Commission for the anti-malaria initiative. He outlined Ghana's anti-malaria interventions including case management at health facility centres, the use of insecticide-impregnated mosquito bed nets, indoor residual spray and the use of biolarvicing in collaboration with Labiofam/Cuba. Echoing the sentiments expressed by the ECOWAS President, the Commissioner of Health, River State of Nigeria, Dr Sampson Parker, said African Governments should do more to defeat malaria, the political leaderships (the Commanders-in- Chief of various African countries) leading the war. The Commissioner, whose state launched the biolarvicide programme in March 2011, also called on all stakeholders to play their part by discouraging the collection of stagnant water, production of fake drugs and by clearing drainages which provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Speaking on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa Regional Director, Dr. Luis Gomez Sambo, the acting WHO Representative in Ghana, Dr. Felicia Owusu-Antwi, noted that the region accounted for 86 per cent of malaria cases and 91 per cent of malaria-related deaths globally of which 85 per cent are children under five years. "The economic loss due to malaria (in Africa) had been estimated at US$12 billion," she said, adding that elimination of malaria in high burden countries of the region will require universal coverage with potent tools and stronger health systems". There is also the need, she said, for accelerated implementation of high impact interventions towards sustained control before re-orienting programmes based on robust surveillance.
To this end, the WHO official acknowledged the remarkable effort of Cape Verde where the strategic plan 2011-2020 targets malaria pre-elimination and reaffirmed the commitment of the WHO to the continued provision of normative guidelines and technical assistance to malaria control programmes. She also pledged that the WHO would continue to support the promotion of innovative partnerships to document the impact of malaria control approaches, especially in the area of integrated vector management. The Accra meeting which is being organized by the ECOWAS Commission brings together Malaria Programme Managers, representatives of the West African Network for Vector Control (entomologists) and other regional actors to develop the ECOWAS Strategic Plan for Malaria elimination in the region by 2015. It provides an opportunity for Member States to undertake a field visit and explore Ghana's experience on the use of biolarvicides from Labiofam/Cuba and the experiences of other Member States, including Nigeria. It would also avail the participants of the situation analysis and socio- economic impact of malaria as well as the Strategic plan and Communication Strategy for malaria elimination in the ECOWAS region.
The result of the meeting will contribute to the preparation of the extraordinary meeting of Ministers of Health on Malaria Elimination in ECOWAS by 2015 as requested by the Assembly of Health Ministers meeting held recently in Lome, Togo. Participants of the Accra meeting include representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), the West African Health Organization (WAHO), the African Network on Vector Resistance to Insecticides (ANVR), the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) and the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) Nigeria.
