Malaria Crippling Health Fund - Health Minister Reveals

By: Edward Turkson

Ghana 's cost of treating reported cases of malaria alone for this year is equivalent to the entire budget of the Health Ministry, the Health Minister, Major Courage Quashigah ((retd)), has disclosed.

Addressing a Health Summit in Accra on Tuesday, Major Quashigah said the cost of treating malaria this year alone was $772.4 million, which was the country’s entire health budget for 2008 and also amounted to 10 per cent of Ghana’s entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the year 2006.

The Health Summit is an annual programme organised by the Ministry of Health and its development partners. This year’s event is on the theme, “Creating Wealth through Health” and is designed to sensitise Ghanaians to the need for regenerative health and nutrition as a core strategy for addressing health-related problems.

Maj. Quashigah also used the occasion to caution Ghanaians not to underestimate malaria; a disease which the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated killed one child every 30 seconds worldwide.

The WHO also reports that up to 500 million people suffer from severe malaria, with most cases occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, statistics show that one in every five childhood deaths results from malaria.

Although children are critically threatened by it, malaria is a disease suffered by people of all ages. It is caused by parasites of the species Plasmodium that are spread from person to person through the bites of infected mosquitoes and its common symptoms are fever, headache, chills and vomiting.

On a continent-wide basis, malaria has severe socio-economic effect through increased poverty, impaired learning and decreasing attendance of school and work, as well as direct costs that include a combination of personal and public expenditures on both prevention and treatment of the disease.

Addressing the summit, Major Quashigah said, “Malaria slows down economic growth and if not checked, it can erode the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) if we do not take urgent actions.”

He also took the opportunity to congratulate the development partners on their support and the staff of the Ghana Health Service on their hard work towards the control of malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

The minister referred to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as one of the most important pro-poor social policies implemented by the government.

“The scheme is operational in all districts, with 55 per cent coverage as of September this year, and there are plans to extend the coverage to 65 per cent in 2008,” he noted.

He said notwithstanding challenges like human resource, infrastructure and health financing, the sustainability of the NHIS initiative would contribute positively towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Ambassador of the Netherlands, Lidi Remmelzwaal, noted that it was important for all stakeholders to work in a co-ordinated manner to maximise their benefits and contributions to the health sector.

“Together, we should strive to have excellent district health care systems to create wealth through health for all Ghanaians,” she said.

She said the Netherlands would continue to improve dialogue with the MOH, while looking at possibilities to improve intersectoral collaboration with other ministries involved in health promotion.

The Chairman for the occasion, Rev Dr Mensah Otabil, who is also the General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church, commended the ministry for introducing the Regenerative Health and Nutrition into Ghana’s health system and advised Ghanaians to be mindful of their choice of food and also have enough rest to avoid stress-related problems.


Source/Credit:http://www.graphicghana.com.