In his
unprecedented efforts for policy change on malaria programmes in
sub-Saharan Africa, the Executive Director of Volunteer Partnerships
for West Africa (VPWA), Mr Hayford Siaw in an interview on Choice fm
102.3, an Accra radio station last Tuesday ,reiterated his call for
civil society groups and governments in sub-Saharan Africa to take the
opportunity of President Obama’s presence on the African soil as
President for United States of America to call for policy change in the
way Malaria is been handle by the powers that be.
He
chronicled the methodology used by United States and Canada and some
parts of Europe in eliminating the scourge of this deadly disease and
hinted that, President Obama will ‘’by all means’’ mention his
country’s efforts in combating diseases on the African continent
including Malaria and as such, it is important to let him know that,
the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) which is a direct contribution
by the US government in fighting the disease along with Global Fund and
other donors are not been used properly and it is time to stop the game
of controlling the disease to a serious approach of eradicating the
disease using same tools the United States implored in defeating
Malaria.
Mr Siaw wondered why in the 21st
century, we should be advocating to ‘’control’’ a disease we could
eradicate if our leadership in Africa will be serious enough to work
with proving methods. As he has always done, he emphasised that even if
mosquito net were to be 100% used by an individual, it effectiveness is
only part at 25% and that is why people are still dying and it is time
we put the billions of dollars going to purchase net to control the
disease into effective mechanisms of eradicating it. He buttresses this
argument by asking the Host of the Programme if the World Health
Organization (WHO) has stopped saying 2 persons die every minute. He
recollects that, he got to know it 20 years ago and we still continue
to say it as if human life is such a disposable commodity.
He mentioned that, despite the
colossal expenditure of over $100 million to combat malaria in Ghana in
2006 and 2007, WHO still reports that there is no evidence of decrease
in Malaria cases and reported deaths has increased. He questioned how
the money was used and for what purpose.
The Host
of the Choice FM Breakfast show, Mr Alfred Ocansey who had also enquire
on the current state of Malaria in Ghana from National Malaria Control
Programme (NMCP) quoted them as saying Malaria cases for 2008 was less
but was however not able to give the figures. The Executive Director of
VPWA ask how sustainable is their so call reduction in figures and
quoted from a WHO Malaria report on Ghana that in 2002, there was total
death of 1917 and it was less in 2003 at 1680 but in 2007, death from
Malaria has risen to almost a triple at 4622.
Meanwhile,
some critics have argued that the aerial insecticide dispensing system
that the VPWA Executive Director is advocating to be introduced in
Ghana to defeat Malaria in Ghana within three years is expensive and we
should therefore concentrate on simple mechanism of distributing nets
to as much people as possible. Speaking to this Reporter, Mr Siaw has
described the critics as ‘’failures refusing to think outside the
box’’. He also described critics as been ‘’brainwashed by Malthusians’’.
In his
opinion, Human life is expensive than the method he is suggesting and
society must not tolerate people who desire to suppress population
growth in such a way. He also ask why net is been recommended and
wondered how many mosquito nets was distributed in Europe and America
during their fight to eradicate Malaria in those places. He wondered
why the Global Fund will boast it success of fight against Malaria by
posting the number of nets they have been able to distribute without
calculating the life saved if any on their website.
