Let’s not lose sight of malaria because of Coronavirus — Makarios Foundation

The Country Director of Makarios Foundation has asked the Ghana Health Service not to lose sight of its fight against the malaria parasite since it still poses a challenge to the health of Ghanaians.

Madam Lucy Apeajei observed that even though the fight against Covid-19 was necessary, Ghanaians were gradually losing sight of the many other diseases since all attention was on the fight against Coronavirus.

Madam Apeajei said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of a malaria awareness program at Nungua.

Madam Apeajei informed that her outfit had a follow up on some Covid-19 patients to ensure they were not stigmatized, “and upon the visit, we had to rush some of them back to the hospital, not because of Covid-19; it was malaria.”

She, therefore, indicated that “Our focus has shifted now as a country; we are all looking at the Covid-19 pandemic; even if you have malaria and you go to the hospital, the first thing they think about is that you have Covid-19; unless they test you and see it’s not Covid-19 before they think about any other thing.”

The Country Director advised that Ghanaians should not ignore other killer diseases because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We don’t need to wait for a backlog of people dying before we come up with a rapid response, giving and donating item, etc. National malaria control programme is not doing much because of covid-19; nobody is talking about malaria,” she lamented.

She urged every citizen to continue to observe all Covid-19 protocols to prevent contracting the diseases but advised that everyone practised personal and environmental hygiene in order not to contract other equally deadly diseases.

Madam Apeajei asked the Ministry of health to prevent a situation in which, after the Covid-19 pandemic, the lives of large numbers of Ghanaians were threatened because of malaria; “That could overstretch our health system, like it happened under Covid-19.”

Our health is our wealth and since malaria is one of the killer diseases in the world, everybody should be mindful of it and keep a clean environment.

Makarios Foundation is a Non Governmental organization which promotes the alleviation of extreme poverty, good health and wellbeing practices and education for the needy, homeless and destitute in society with the aim of providing hope and resources for all.

The sponsors and partners of the program include the Ministry of Health, National Malaria Control Program, Great Impact Ministries, Wilmer Ghana, Unilever, Kasapreko, Abibinsroma, Nungua Warehouse, and Childcare Foundation.