GHS: By 2028, Ghana wants to cut malaria deaths by 90%

By 2028, Ghana hopes to eradicate malaria in 21 districts with extremely low malaria burdens and cut malaria mortality by 90%. This is in light of the World Health Organization's global technical plan for malaria 2016–2030, which aims to reduce malaria fatality rates worldwide by at least 90% by that year.

With malaria as the primary cause of illness and mortality in the nation, especially among pregnant women and children under five, Ghana continues to be a high-burden malaria country.
In actuality, malaria is the cause of 22% of hospital admissions and 20% of outpatient visits in Ghana (NMEP, 2022).

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With more than 5.2 million confirmed cases and 151 fatalities from malaria in 2022, Ghana's national prevalence decreased from 14.1% in 2019 to 8.6% in 2022. The Oti region had the greatest incidence at 15.0%, while the Greater Accra region had the lowest at 2.0%.

The Ghanaian government's goal of eliminating malaria is being pursued by the National Malaria Elimination Program (NMEP). “We’ve been able to reduce our malaria parasite prevalence in children under 5. Our goal is to make sure that we move towards elimination, that is why we have set ourselves for the sub national elimination approach where we know that we cannot eliminate malaria by 2028 in the whole country, but we have zoned the country out". 

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"The rest of Greater Accra Region are low, and we are hoping that even as we work with the rest of the 21 districts, because the rest are so close, they will also learn from it and gradually, the Greater Accra Region will be a place where malaria is eliminated.” Dr Keziah Malm, the manager for the NMEP explained.

According to Dr. Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, Director of the Ghana Health Service's Public Health Division, the nation will benefit from successfully combating malaria. “In terms of profit, malaria alone leads to a loss about 6% of our GDP which is huge. I think that if we are able to address a bit of malaria then clearly you are going to make a lot of profit. It has direct and indirect effects on workers and the organization with respect to the dependence, the employee’s absenteeism, so we think that if we minimize the effect of malaria, there is a lot to gain as a country.”

Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe stated. Dr. Keziah Malm, the manager of the National Malaria Elimination Program, went into further detail about the significance of private sector participation and assistance from other stakeholders in the battle against malaria.

“We know that from the strategies we’ve put in place that we can’t do it alone as a public sector institution in the Ministry of Health, so today’s meeting was to bring the private sector on board to bring them to understand why we set out to set those goals and what they are possibly do in the fight against malaria,” she said.

In order to effectively plan and carry out the elimination of malaria, international, national, and interagency stakeholders at all levels must continue to collaborate. Malaria is still a high priority disease.