By Samira Larbie, GNA
Accra, Feb. 13, GNA – Prof Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, Deputy Minister of Health, has said Ghana is committed to achieving health sovereignty and accelerating malaria elimination through technology-driven innovations.
She said malaria elimination was not only a health priority but also an economic investment, noting that eliminating the disease could significantly boost Africa’s economic growth.
The Deputy Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Essikado-Ketan, made this known at a regional workshop organised by Sora Technology in collaboration with the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) in Accra on Technology-Enabled Larval Source Management (LSM).
The two-day workshop was on the theme: “From Mapping to Action: Tech-Enabled LSM for Malaria Elimination.”
It aimed to share experiences, best practices, and lessons learned from different countries while showcasing Ghana’s progress in leveraging technology to support malaria elimination efforts.
Dr Ayensu-Danquah noted that despite decades of global progress, malaria remained one of the world’s most persistent public health threats, claiming about 610,000 lives in 2024, with most deaths occurring in Africa.
The global funding gap for malaria control stands at 5.4 billion dollars, with only 42 percent of required resources currently available, while international health assistance continues to decline.
“Ghana’s national response, however, has yielded significant results. Under the National Malaria Elimination Strategic Plan 2024–2028, the country recorded 74 malaria-related deaths in 2024, compared with 151 in 2022.
“The country has also achieved a 97 per cent reduction in malaria deaths since 2012, when nearly 2,800 fatalities were recorded,” she stated.
Dr Ayensu-Danquah said technology-enabled LSM had been identified as a critical innovation to complement existing interventions such as insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying and effective case management, particularly in urban and pre-elimination settings.
She highlighted the cost-effectiveness of the approach, noting that while traditional indoor spraying costs about 6.70 dollars per person protected, technology-enabled LSM could provide protection at between 24 and 44 cents per person, making nationwide implementation financially feasible.
The Deputy Minister said the intervention was also seen as essential in addressing emerging threats, including the detection of the invasive Asian mosquito, Anopheles stephensi, in Accra in 2023.
The mosquito breeds in artificial water containers and urban environments, posing new challenges to traditional malaria control strategies.
Citing the Djibouti’s experience, where malaria cases surged from 27 in 2012 to over 73,000 by 2020 after the spread of the vector, Dr Ayensu-Danquah warned that up to 126 million urban Africans could face increased malaria risk if it spreads further.
She called for practical implementation plans, monitoring frameworks, and sustainable financing pathways to scale up technology-enabled malaria elimination programmes.
This, she said, aligned with President John Dramani Mahama’s “Accra Reset” vision, stressing that “Africa must take ownership of its health security” and that “health is not a cost, it is the engine of productivity and the foundation of sovereignty.”
Dr Ayensu-Danquah thus pledged Ghana’s commitment to building domestic capacity, strengthening partnerships and deploying innovative solutions to secure a malaria-free future for its population.
The workshop brought together malaria programme managers from Ghana, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Mali, Benin, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Asia and Zimbabwe to share experiences and best practices.
Hiroshi Yoshimoto, Japan’s Ambassador to Ghana, said more needed to be done in the fight against malaria and urged African countries to adopt better use of science and technology.
He reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to universal health coverage and support for efforts that reinforce national health systems.
“I hope that the discussions during this workshop will be productive and guide how we work together to sustain the progress achieved through LSM, while also centering collaboration among key stakeholders to scale up the innovative approach in the fight against malaria,” he said.
Dr Fiona Braka, World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative to Ghana, said vector-borne diseases continued to contribute significantly to the global burden of communicable diseases, with climate change, environmental variability and population movement driving their spread.
She noted that vector control accounted for a substantial proportion of the reduction in global malaria burden since 2000 and called for data-driven, evidence-based LSM using affordable and innovative tools such as AI, drones and remote sensing to achieve elimination status.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey