Samuel Bonney Noi, the acting Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem Mine, a gold mining company in Tarkwa, has revealed that the company will spend about GH¢400,000 to support malaria prevention, this year.
Already, the company had distributed about 20,000 insecticide treated nets to 16 communities, employees and dependents of the company, including 4,500 students in three senior high schools in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality under its malaria control programme.
This came to light when the mining company organized a free health screening for residents of Adieyie and its neighbouring communities in the municipality to support malaria prevention.
Mr. Noi noted that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), every two minutes a child dies of malaria and appealed to all stakeholders to put their hands on deck so that they could fight the menace.
He explained that in June 2017, AngloGold Ashanti launched the Malaria Control Programme and added that the interventions had yielded positive results as statistics indicated a downward trend in malaria cases in health facilities within the company’s host communities.
According to him, “Statistics from Sam Jonah Hospital indicated that malaria incidence rate had reduced from 18.4 per cent per 100 employees in 2017 to 14.8 per cent per 100 employees in 2018 close to 20 per cent reduction in incidence”.
“However, statistics from the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Health Directorate also revealed that malaria cases from the Iduapriem sub municipal reduced,” he disclosed.
“The cases reduced from 2,088 in January to October in 2017 to 1,683 cases within the same period for 2018 representing 19.4 per cent reduction in the total reported cases”, he further explained.
The Municipal Health Director, Mr. Emmanuel Affelkum, mentioned that malaria was the second leading disease in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, stressing that in 2018 a total of 46,568 people had malaria.
“Out of this figure, 3,664 were hospitalized, which included 1,352 children”, he added.
Cynthia Odoom Wilson, a physician assistant in the area, revealed that out of the over 150 residents screened, about 50 of them were diagnosed with malaria and were treated and discharged.
She added that 72 dustbins were also distributed to schools, hospitals, markets and some communities in the municipality.
Chief of Adieyie Community, Nana Kwasi Dante, who is also the Malaria Ambassador in Tarkwa, encouraged his subjects to ensure they always lived in hygienic environment to help prevent malaria.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Tarkwa