Malaria still the number one killer in Africa
Gilbert Boyefio
25/07/2006
Every year about 30 million pregnancies occur among women in malarious areas of Africa, yet less than 5 percent of pregnant women have access to effective interventions. For these women, malaria is a threat both to themselves and to their babies, with up to 200,000 new born deaths each year as a result of malaria in pregnancy.
Women and children continue to suffer and die because they do not have access to the basic minimum of care, with the availability and use of quality skilled care during pregnancy, childbirth and the immediate postnatal period, also unavailable.
This disturbing data was disclosed at an orientation workshop on the prevention and control of malaria pregnancy in the context of focused antenatal care, in Accra Monday.
The Deputy Director for Public Health, Ghana Health Service, Henrietta Odoi-Agyarko said despite the toll that malaria exacts on pregnant women and their babies, it was a relatively neglected problem until recently. She said in terms of its effect on mothers, severe anaemia increases the risk for maternal mortalities, and malarial anaemia is estimated to cause as many as 10,000 maternal deaths each year in Africa.
She said the promising news however is that during the past decade potentially more effective strategies for control of malaria in pregnancy have been developed and demonstrated to have remarkable impact on improving the health of mothers and their newborns.
She noted that based on available evidence, the World Health Organisation has recommended a three pronged approach to the prevention of malaria during pregnancy. These include the use of insecticide treated net, intermitted preventive treatment and effective case management of malaria.
A representative from the WHO, J Saweka said developing and strengthening a national capacity for the prevention and control of malaria during pregnancy remains a high priority for the Africa region but efforts aimed at addressing the problem of malaria have faced new challenges.
Dr Saweka cited poor collaboration between national malaria control programmes and reproductive health programmes, availability of anti malaria drugs and their cost.
25/07/2006
Every year about 30 million pregnancies occur among women in malarious areas of Africa, yet less than 5 percent of pregnant women have access to effective interventions. For these women, malaria is a threat both to themselves and to their babies, with up to 200,000 new born deaths each year as a result of malaria in pregnancy.
Women and children continue to suffer and die because they do not have access to the basic minimum of care, with the availability and use of quality skilled care during pregnancy, childbirth and the immediate postnatal period, also unavailable.
This disturbing data was disclosed at an orientation workshop on the prevention and control of malaria pregnancy in the context of focused antenatal care, in Accra Monday.
The Deputy Director for Public Health, Ghana Health Service, Henrietta Odoi-Agyarko said despite the toll that malaria exacts on pregnant women and their babies, it was a relatively neglected problem until recently. She said in terms of its effect on mothers, severe anaemia increases the risk for maternal mortalities, and malarial anaemia is estimated to cause as many as 10,000 maternal deaths each year in Africa.
She said the promising news however is that during the past decade potentially more effective strategies for control of malaria in pregnancy have been developed and demonstrated to have remarkable impact on improving the health of mothers and their newborns.
She noted that based on available evidence, the World Health Organisation has recommended a three pronged approach to the prevention of malaria during pregnancy. These include the use of insecticide treated net, intermitted preventive treatment and effective case management of malaria.
A representative from the WHO, J Saweka said developing and strengthening a national capacity for the prevention and control of malaria during pregnancy remains a high priority for the Africa region but efforts aimed at addressing the problem of malaria have faced new challenges.
Dr Saweka cited poor collaboration between national malaria control programmes and reproductive health programmes, availability of anti malaria drugs and their cost.
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