CAN AFRICA ELIMINATE MALARIA BY 2030

CAN AFRICA ELIMINATE MALARIA BY 2030

A country that has made advancements in its economy can boast of a strong backbone of an equipped and able health system. Health is a pertinent   sector that portrays the true reflection of a country’s economy, because it is said that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation ,lending credence to this statement every wealthy nation has made its health system an utmost priority to   manage its health system effectively and efficiently .Good health breeds wealth, therefore one must put in much effort when tackling trivial issues concerning health .Malaria as an ailment  has been a headache for many countries in  Africa, the menace posed by malaria has been a worry for most countries globally. Africa in recent years has been victimized by the dangers of malaria. Malaria is a major health problem in Africa, this is evidenced by the dominance of malaria diagnosis in most of OPD (OUT-PATIENT DEPARTMENT) cases. Africa has not been adamant with regards to the growing concerns of the health consequences of malaria but constructive efforts have been made to help reduce the incidence of malaria .In the past few years, tremendous efforts have been made to help improve upon ways to combat the health effects malaria pose to the people. The continent has also taken up the responsibility to review, identify and implement initiatives to help alleviate malaria. These steps brought about the idea of FREE MALARIA BY 2030 under the theme “ROLL BACK MALARIA BY 2030(2016-2030), and in order to achieve this goal many actions and steps undertaken by the governments has been a move geared towards the eradication of malaria from the continent .A suite of multiple prevention have been outlined, including free distribution of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) to the people to prevent mosquito bites, which is GREATLY FUNDED by the BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION. Most importantly, the governments have observed the best intervention through the assistance of the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION(WHO) by providing SULPHADOXINE-PYRIMETHAMINE to all pregnant women scheduled to be administered and regulated under the direct supervision of health professionals between the fourth and ninth months of pregnancy under a program known as INTERMITTENT PREVENTIVE TREATMENT(IPTp)  during pregnancy, since malaria could aggravate the condition of the pregnant woman   when the  woman is attacked . Furthermore, another laudable intervention to help promote the fight against malaria was the initiative taken by the governments to maintain good sanitary conditions. A survey in Ghana conducted some few years ago in Ghana came out with some recommendations that was used to help reduce the incidence of malaria and cholera which was on the ascendancy as result of poor sanitary conditions. A follow up to the recommendations saw the First Saturday of every month earmarked National Sanitation Day across Ghana, the main aim of this project was to help combat the spread of cholera and malaria by cleaning up our surroundings in an effort to get rid of the unsanitary conditions that breed dreadful diseases like cholera and malaria. This project in some way  helped brought the spread of cholera and malaria  under control to an appreciable level  .On the contrary, most people bear this opinion that, Africa with all these preventive measures undertaken ,Africa cannot achieve its aim of eradicating malaria by the year 2030.

There has been so many progress made towards the elimination of malaria, but still numerous challenges await the continent to be resolved. The eradication of malaria from the continent must be a shared responsibility, if countries wish to fully eradicate malaria. The inhabitants have a major role to play and same must be said about the governments .This piece is now going to center and highlight the key factors which hinder the progress of achieving FREE MALARIA BY 2030 IN AFRICA. This initiative cannot be realized, if there are so many pressing issues the governments and the citizenry must tackle head on in order to facilitate the elimination of malaria.

The government has a major responsibility in making this dream a reality, but it seems that the government via its ministry of health has not made adequate effort to combat the lethal health effects of malaria due to such factors. The continent Africa is facing a major problem of financial inadequacy to provide for its own needs. The country does not have enough funds to end the dangers of malaria. The health sector is a vital component of a country’s economy, therefore the health sector deserves much acknowledgement. Most countries are in debt and a country which is very serious about the elimination of malaria must have enough financial funds to provide enough medications and logistics that can help in the  fight against malaria and this cannot be said about most of these African countries. Additionally a major problem our continent faces in our health sector is the inadequate and poor distribution of human resources .One major setback that hinders the provision of holistic health duties is the dire need of health personnels to help in the fight against of malaria  .Most of the health facilities need more hands to work to help in the fight against malaria, therefore there is the need to train more health professionals if the countries are very serious to continue the fight against malaria. The governments are not prepared to eliminate malaria by 2030,because there is no road map outlined to help train more professionals to work in our health centers to help put malaria under check when the need arises .Most of these trained health professionals are mostly practising in urban centers ,malaria is known to affect greatly the people living in the rural centers due to the poor and untidy sanitary conditions they colonize, the unavailability of  these health practitioners in the rural areas has caused an increase in the incidence  of mortality caused by recurrent malaria attacks in these  less disadvantaged areas  of the countries.

Furthermore ,in the fight against malaria ,infrastructure is an unending need ,but the state the countries find themselves is unspeakable concerning infrastructure in most of the health facilities been used in Africa, for most countries to achieve this goal of eradicating malaria successfully, the provision of adequate infrastructure should be a priority, a great doing by a country called Ghana, turned out to be bad after the ministry of health embarked on a nationwide campaign to supply mosquito nets to the people, but it was observed that the nets were being given mostly to the people in the urban centers neglecting the people in the rural areas ,who are greatly affected by the harmful effects of malaria due to the inability to generate more income to buy treated mosquito nets and also seek health care. To add up, in some different parts of the country these mosquito nets that were to be given out without any financial returns  were given out at a cost making it very difficult for the less privileged ones in society to get access to the treated mosquito nets ,all these actions undertaken by some officials thwart the efforts being made to achieve the goal of FREE MALARIA by 2030 .Again the  health system still has some lapses in sectors of surveillance, supervision and monitoring of all malaria cases, which facilitate the  gathering of all  information about the dangers and effects malaria poses, proper accumulation of all these important information will provide reliable data that can be utilized to generate new solutions on how to continue to help resolve this global menace when the disease take a different dimension but Africa continues to be an under achiever when it comes to accumulation, processing and storing of data for future purposes.

Lastly, the creation of awareness on the health effects of malaria to the general public is being done but not to a very appreciable level. The education given to the citizenry is inadequate to help achieve the aim of FREE MALARIA BY 2030.Most of the education and campaign against malaria  organized is not only low in the urban centers but there is also the lack of education in the rural centers resulting in an increase in malaria attacks in the countries. Africans need more education, therefore the governments must always be up and doing and proactive  in educating the people about the health effects of malaria by implementing clear cut initiatives to help alleviate malaria but that cannot be said about the government of most countries in AFRICA .

The people, on the other hand, also have a responsibility in the fight against malaria.  The assertion that the governments should be the sole provider of health needs for a country should be corrected. The management of the health sector should be a collective responsibility of the people living in a particular area and the government. For the goal of FREE MALARIA BY 2030, to be materialized, the citizenry must be cautious about the way they execute their responsibilities .On the contrary, the actions of the people of Africa does not portray their willingness to help eliminate malaria by the year 2030.Below are numerous factors that thwart the efforts being undertaken to help check the incidence malaria.

To start up, poverty is a major problem facing most people in Africa. Financial inadequacy breeds lots of negativism namely, poor nutrition ,poor patronage of the health facilities when they are attacked by malaria, inability to reside in good and clean environment ,etc ,and this goes a long way to militate against the eradication of malaria. Most Africans are currently wallowing in abject poverty which has a negative influence on this goal of FREE MALARIA BY 2030.   Additionally, low literacy rate in Africa is a major factor that works against the combat of malaria and needs to be resolved if the continent wants to end this menace by 2030.Most malaria prone areas are inhabited by families that are classified as illiterates ,therefore, this amounts to a bigger probability of being affected by malaria. These people do not know the health consequences that come with residing in these untidy and dirty areas. Again, they do not have the adequate knowledge about malaria and hence they lack adequate techniques and education on how   to prevent malaria making it very impossible to resolve the increased attacks of malaria in the continent. Furthermore, high birth rate in Africa that serves the continent with energetic and a powerful working youth population to some extent comes with so many advantages for the continent , but when the incidence of malaria is not checked, what Africa boast of having a very energetic youthful population will not yield any beneficial results, since malaria can only make this population powerless .Lastly, Most people  in recent years have developed interest in practices that have endangered the state of our environment. Most of these malpractices such as throwing of litter in gutters, non maintenance of  a tidy and clean environment, just to mention a few, these direct activities only breeds mosquitoes, which causes a proliferation of these insects thereby directly increasing the incidence of malaria in the continent.

To conclude, the goal FREE MALARIA BY 2030 in Africa is a step in a right direction, but this dream cannot be realized due to the ineptitudeness and weakness we portray as a continent, achieving this goal by 2030 will not only save millions of lives ,it will also reduce poverty and create healthier and more equitable societies.

                                                                    LAWRENCE OBOURH MENSAH

                                                                    Lawbo111@gmail.com