By Maxwell Koligu Tidow | Founder, Rescue and Restore Hope Zambulkura Ghana
HEALTH SCREENING ON MALARIA IN ZAMBULKURA COMMUNITY SCHOOL-JANUARY,2023
This is a report on Project 53920 – Treat 6000 children with malaria in Zambulkura Community. The malaria screening and treatment took place on 9th January 2023 at the Zambulkura Primary school by a health team organized by Rescue and Restore Hope Zambulkura Ghana. This screening like the previous screenings was made possible due to donation of funds received from GlobalGiving (GG) for the program. The funds received was used to buy the usual antimalaria medicines such as Rapid malaria test kits for testing every suspected patient before treatment, Anti malaria medicines, cough syrup, de-wormers, multivitamins syrup among other medicines mostly for children. These medicines were bought 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, pregnant women and the aged who could not walk to Nalerigu Baptist Hospital to access health care. Other children in the community who were not enrolled in the school but were from the surrounding communities were considered for the screening and treatment. As we always do when we are going for the programs, we sent a week notice to the school and the communities before the screening date on 9th January 2023.
In this screening a total of 376 people were screened with 51(13.56%) tested positive for malaria disease and were treated with malaria medications. Children suffering from cough, or appeared anaemic were treated with cough syrup and multivitamins. Patients with other health conditions including non-communicable diseases, depending on the situation were treated by the medical team or referred to Nalerigu hospital for further treatment. Among the total of 376 people screened and treated 68 (18.09%) were children between 0-5 years. Children age 6-17 years were 214 (56.91%). Adults and pregnant women who took part in the screening and treatment were a total of 43(11.44%).
Among the test results of 68 children age 0-5years, 7 of them, representing (10.29%) tested positive for malaria. Children age 6-17years who took part in the screening, 35 (16.36%) out of the 214 children tested positive for malaria and were treated. Some members of this group had other medical conditions including infections, cough, with some of the children needing de-worming as well. For the 43 adults included in the exercise were pregnant women and the aged. Among their group, 12 (27.91%) tested positive for malaria disease. From the test results as usual, children of school going age group had the highest number of positive malaria cases of 35 (16.36%), however, in percentage wise, the pregnant women and the aged group had a higher percentage of 27.91%. The high number of school children suffering from the malaria disease has a potential negative impact on school attendance as many children may absent themselves from school because of the malaria disease. Due to lack of access to a health facility and health services in Zambulkura and nearby communities, and the challenges and frustration involved when the communities need to access healthcare, they often delay in getting treatment, leading to complications including deaths. But 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. Particularly there has not been report on deaths associated with malaria among the school children in the past two years.
CONCLUSION
Our donors and GlobalGiving Team has been amazing and very helpful. In fact they deserve all the glory and we at Rescue and Restore Hope Zambulkura Ghana,and all the Zambulkura and surrounding communities owe you lots of gratitude. Your regular donations made it possible for us to regularly carry out the malaria screening and treatment in Zambulkura and its surrounding communities. This has helped in reducing the disease impact on the lives of children and community members in the area.
The platform GlobalGiving provided is a wonderful site that give RRHZ and many other organizations the chance to touch many lives positively in our communities. These malaria screenings are helping so much;however, the construction of a health facility will be a permanent solution to the health needs of these communities. A request by Zambulkura community to put up a 40-bed capacity health facility to provide the much needed health care services to the several communities has been accepted by RRHZ. A piece of land has been provided by the community and construction of the facility has commenced but funding is needed to complete and start operating it to make healthcare easily accessible to all these deprived communities and move towards achievement of the Universal Health Coverage’
Thank you GlobalGiving Team and to all our amazing donors.
TIDOW KOLIGU MAXWELL
FOUNDER (RRHZ)
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