Findings from the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) has shown that the prevalence of malaria in children has declined over the past eight years, falling by more than a third from 26.7 percent in 2014 to 8.6 percent in 2022.

Also, the malaria prevalence in children aged 6 to 59 months is 8.6 percent with the prevalence rate in rural areas (12.8%) totalling about three times that of urban areas (4.3%).

A press statement issued by the Ghana Statistical Service on 25th April 2023 which marks World Malaria Day noted that Greater Accra Region recorded the lowest malaria prevalence rate with 2.0%, followed by the Western North and Volta Regions with 4.4% and 6.4% respectively.

"The regions with the highest prevalence of malaria according to microscopy results are Oti (15.0%), Upper West (13.4%), and the Upper East (12.2%) regions. In all, half of the 16 regions record malaria prevalence above 10 percent," it emphasized.

According to the release, the malaria prevalence rate among pregnant women has also declined from 3.3 percent in 2019 to 2.4 percent in 2022.

"The malaria prevalence among pregnant women in 2022 is highest in the Oti Region (7.0%) followed by the Savannah Region (5.4%), which are the only two regions to record prevalence more than double the national average," it stated.

It added that the total number of Outpatient Department (OPD) malaria cases recorded in DHIMS declined from 6.1 million in 2019 to 5.2 million in 2022.

"The East Mamprusi District in the North East Region recorded the highest number of OPD malaria cases with 73,782 cases followed by Jaman North and South Districts with 63,776 and 55,672 cases respectively," it emphasised.

The survey also revealed that 211 out of the total 261 districts recorded more than 10,000 OPD cases in 2022.

The 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey Key Findings Report will be released in May 2023.