The National Malarial Control Programme (NMCP) has taken its fight against malaria to the doorsteps of corporate bodies in various parts of the country.
In Sekondi/Takoradi, the NMCP is collaborating with the Ghana Cement Factory (GHACEM) to educate the workers on steps to take to avoid getting malaria, as a means of reducing production hours lost when workers get malaria.
At a forum held recently, the workers were taken through various ways of preventing contact with the female anopheles mosquito which transmits the disease and the importance of using the insecticide treated bed net.
In his presentation, the Programme Officer in charge of Partnership, Planning and Resource Mobilisation, of the NMCP, Mr Sylvester Segbeya, educated the workers on the environmental factors that promoted the breeding of the female anopheles mosquito.
He said the move to meet the workers at their doorstep was to halt low productivity as a result of a worker contracting malaria.
Mr Segbeya said the socio-economic development of the country was tied to the health of its citizenry, “If you fail to prevent malaria or treat it on time and it pushes you down, your output for the day will reduce hence, you will not produce at full capacity but pay the full cost of production.”
He said it was very important therefore to let people know all about the causes of malaria and how to prevent it.
Mr Segbeya said the mosquito that transmiting the parasite that causes malaria actually bit late in the night between 10p.m. and 4a.m.
He said it was important to note that the mosquito that transmited the parasite did not breed in polluted water with chemicals but rather in stagnant water with no pollutant.
The officer further explained that after breeding, the female anopheles mosquito then flies into cool places in the factories and into homes and late in the night suck human blood to enable it to reproduce.
Mr Segbeya urged the workers who contracted malaria to complete the full dose of medication to avoid drug resistance to the disease.
“One of the problems we have identified is that most patients diagnosed with malaria do not complete the full course of prescribed drugs as they discontinue medication as soon as they feel better,” he said.
The team also took the workers and management through the processes of mounting the insecticide treated bed net to prevent mosquito bites.
The Maintenance Manager of GHACEM, Mr Fred Oboe-Sam, thanked the NMCP for the initiative, which, he hoped, would greatly reduce malaria in the company.
No comments:
Post a Comment