Treat 6000children with malaria in Zambulkura area

MALARIA SCREENING IN ZAMBULKURA PRIMARY SCHOOL-AUGUST 2022

 Rescue and Restore Hope Zambulkura Ghana carried out malaria screening under Project 53920 – Treat 6000 children with malaria in Zambulkura on 27^th August 2022. This was made possible due to donation of funds received from GlobalGiving (GG) for the program. The funds received was used to buy de-wormers, cough syrup, Rapid malaria test kits, Anti-Malaria medicine, multivitamins for children, and Paracetamol syrup in Accra the capital of Ghana and travelled to Zambulkura the project site for the program. Our focus for the malaria screening and treatment was the school children in Zambulkura, but consideration was given to children who were not enrolled in the school but were from the surrounding communities. Pregnant women from the nearby communities who came to the screening were also attended to.  As we normally do when we are going for the programs, we sent a week notice to the school and the communities before the screening date of 27^th August 2022.

In this screening a total of 488 people were screened with 94(19.26%) tested positive for malaria disease and were treated with malaria medications and those with other health conditions including non-communicable diseases, depending on the situation were treated by the medical team or referred to Nalerigu Baptist hospital for further treatment.   Out of the total of 488 people screened and treated 87 (17.83%) were children between 0-5 years. Children age 6-17 years were 304 (62.29%). Adults and pregnant women who took part in the screening and treatment were a total of 97(19.88%).

Among the test results of 87 children age 0-5years, 11 of them, representing (12.64%) tested positive for malaria. On the children age 6-17years who took part in the screening, 59 (19.40%) out of the 304 children tested positive for malaria and were treated. Many members of this group had other medical conditions including infections, cough, with some of the children needing de-worming as well. For the 97 adults mostly pregnant women and the aged who took part in the exercise, 24 (24.74%) tested positive for malaria disease. From the test results, children of school going age group had the highest number of positive malaria cases of 59 (19.40%), in percentage wise however, the pregnant women and the aged had a higher percentage of 24.74%. The high number of school children suffering from the malaria disease has negative impact on school attendance as many children absent themselves from school due to the malaria disease. Failure to treat early, often leads to complications including deaths. However, with the funds coming through GlobalGiving, it has made it possible for us to carry the health screenings more regularly, thereby minimizing the negative impact of the disease on the communities, as no malaria case deaths among the school children has been reported in 2022. 

CONCLUSION

 Receiving funds from GlobalGiving  has been very helpful  to Rescue and Restore Hope Zambulkura Ghana towards  the regular carrying out of malaria screening and treatment in Zambulkura and its surrounding communities. This has helped in reducing the negative disease impact of malaria in the lives of children  and community members in the area as a whole. In the previous screening a total of 436 people with 77 (17.66%) people tested positives for malaria, compared to this screening where 488 people were screened with 94(19.26) testing positive for the disease. Among the positive cases 5 children were severe malaria and were referred to the Baptist Medical Hospital in Nalerigu for further treatment. There were also 4 children, and 3 pregnant women who were anaemic and were advised to go to the hospital in Nalerigu for further treatment.

 Rescue and Restore Hope Zambulkura Ghana, and the people of Zambulkura and its surrounding communities owe our wonderful donors and the ever-great GlobalGiving team lots of gratitude’s for helping us to carry out this screening. The GG platform has provided a great opportunity for RRHZ to mobilize funds to make such positive impact in the lives of the people.

Even though our health screenings are helping to save many lives, Rescue and Restore Hope Zambulkura Ghana has the ambition to construct a 40-bed capacity health facility in Zambulkura to provide quality and readily accessible health care services as a permanent solution to all the surrounding communities rather than the temporary health screenings. Construction of the 40-bed capacity health facility has commenced but funds are needed to complete the project in Zambulkura to make the very much needed health facility easily accessible to the people in the area towards the achievement of the Universal Health Coverage and that of the MDGs in general.

Thank you to all our amazing donors, and awesome GlobalGiving Team for helping to touch the lives of our people positively.

TIDOW KOLIGU MAXWELL

FOUNDER (RRHZ)

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