GHANA’S ANTI-MALARIA MEDICATION (DOES IT REALLY WORK?)

If you come to Ghana for any time, be fully prepared for the possibility of contracting Malaria.

“Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite that is transmitted from subject to subject by blood sucking female anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria is one of the major public health problems especially in Africa and Asia. In Africa, more than two-thirds of all malaria deaths occur in children under five years of age WHO (2017). Because of continual fight against malaria intervention programs, malaria infection prevalence and clinical incidence decreased by 50% and 40%, between 2000 and 2015, respectively, in Africa Bhatt et al. (2015). As presented in WHO annual report WHO (2017), there were an estimated 216 million malaria cases and 445 thousand malaria deaths in 2017. Among those cases, the majority which accounts for 91% occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa WHO (2017).” (MEDRXIV: Spatial Prevalence And Determinants of Malaria Among Under 5 Children In Ghana).

Ghana is an inviting place to visit or live but there are a few negatives with which one must contend, just like many other places on planet Earth. One such negative is the high incidence of Malaria. I’ve repeatedly run into several people at various times. Who unabashedly confessed to me that they were going through a Malaria episode. I’ve met such people in the market, pharmacy, mini-buses, taxi-cab, grocery store, and even in church. I lived and worked in Jamaica, West Indies, for eight years. I did contract Dengue Fever while there, once. But I have never encountered Malaria, on that Island. Presumably, since The Government of Jamaica invests large sums of money each year. Spraying puddles, gutters, pools, and any other watery receptacle that can act as a breeding repository for Mosquitoes. I have never observed any such public health intervention in Ghana.

My first prolonged visit to Ghana was in 2014. I stayed for one full year and left towards the end of 2015. I encountered many mosquitoes while there but never contracted Ghana’s most prevalent disease. Probably because I brought some anti-Malaria-parasite drugs with me upon my arrival here. Which my physician counseled me to take daily. Those drugs didn’t last me for the whole year but I spread them out over a period of several months and thus escaped Ghana’s most popular annual affliction.

Antimalarial medicines are typically distributed in the high-malaria season months of July, August, September, and October, but in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic placed an extra burden on health systems in Ghana and restricted movement of health care personnel. To ensure that the 2020 seasonal malaria chemoprevention campaign could continue, the USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project funded by the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) worked with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) to adopt recommended safety measures and ensure they were strictly practiced throughout the campaign. (USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program: Preventing Malaria In Ghana Through Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention).

I returned to Ghana in September 2019 and lived in this country without experiencing any Malaria for two years. How I managed to avoid it for such a prolonged period of time is simply inexplicable. However, I came down with this malady in 2021. I can categorically declare that this is a disease that everyone should take very seriously. Since I had never experienced Malaria before I didn’t know the symptoms and accordingly I didn’t even know that I had it. This disease almost killed me because I delayed seeking medical intervention for several weeks. Until my friends and neighbors started urging me to go to the hospital. Since I’ve been hospitalized a few times previously, I’m definitely not a fan of that experience. I went to the Zongo Clinic in Berekum where I was diagnosed with Malaria and Bronchitis and prescribed the appropriate medications. Even though I took the Malaria medication faithfully, I became acutely aware of the fact that the illness clung to me tenaciously for several weeks.

I contracted Malaria for the second time in 2023. But by that time I had been educated experientially about its pathology. Some of the important facts that everyone living in Ghana needs to know about this disease are its exact signs and symptoms. They are as follows and I experienced all of them.

1. Aches and pains. Not only in the head but also in the hips and feet.
2. Diarrhea and this condition can lead to dehydration.
3. Fever right through the day and night. This is usually evidenced by profuse sweating.
4. Fatigue because you tend to sit a lot and have no energy to do anything.
5. Profound weakness in all of your muscles.

I recognized the symptoms the second time around and visited one of the local pharmacies immediately. All they did was sell me the recommended medication and instructed me on the time intervals at which to take them. Let me hasten to say that the directives I received depended on the pharmacy that I visited. They gave me no other information. Which might be due to ignorance, a desire to protect their bottom line, or a limited ability to speak English. Initially, I was given a card with 6 yellow pills and told to take one in the morning and then another one in the afternoon until they were all finished. Without any suggestion from the sales clerk, I specifically requested the anti-diarrhea medication and also a pain killer. Both are sold separately. I made such a request because of my knowledge of the disease. I faithfully followed the instructions given to me but discovered one week later that my illness persisted.

I returned to the same pharmacy approximately 2 weeks later and asked them if the anti-malaria medication they sold me really worked? The owner suggested that since I was from abroad, maybe I would need to go to one of the local hospitals for a week or so. Because the treatment would probably be more specific and effective. I do recall that one of my neighbors was hospitalized for a few days when she came down with Malaria in 2021. She recovered and maybe she did so more quickly than I did. I requested the same card with 6 tablets that they sold me previously. Then repeated the dosage procedure consistent with the instructions I had been given originally. I took the trouble to do this because after about ten days, the first time, I discovered that I had been reinfected with Malaria and the symptoms merely repeated themselves.

(TO BE CONTINUED).