By Daniel Agbesi Latsu
Kadjebi (O/R), Oct 05, GNA – The Kadjebi District Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has started its fourth round of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) dosing.
The exercise started on September 25, and will end on September 29, targeting children between three and 59 months old.
Mrs. Mabel Amankwa-Amoah, the District Health Promotion Officer, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Kadjebi in the Oti Region.
She said Health Staff and volunteers would visit homes for dosing and that children above 59 months who were dosed from cycle one would also be dosed during the exercise.
Mrs. Amankwa-Amoah urged parents and caregivers to continue to accept SMC dosing for their children as that would help reduce malaria under-five morbidity and mortality in the district.
Mrs. Amankwa-Amoah said SMC is a proven intervention to reduce malaria during rainfall and that medication was not harmful and free of charge.
The Health Promotion Officer, thus, reiterated the need for parents and caregivers who are yet to dose their children to take advantage of the exercise and dose them.
She also asked them to feed the children before they took the medicine.
Mr. Sampson Kwesi Kpalam, the Malaria Focal Person for Kadjebi District, engaging with the GNA, said a total of 17,208 children were dosed from cycle one-cycle three.He said the goal of SMC is to reduce the incidence of malaria, hospitalisation, and deaths due to malaria, particularly among children under the age of five, who are most vulnerable to the disease.
GNA