IN an effort to reduce the incidence of malarial infection in the Tamale metropolis, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Baray Foundation, has stepped up its activities to sensitise the people to the need to ensure proper hygiene at home and work places.
It forms part of the organisation’s malaria-free-society project which it implemented in the metropolis in 2006.
As part of the efforts, the organisation is carrying out a house to house campaign to create awareness on how the disease is contracted and the treatment of the disease.
During the exercise residents were sensitised to the use of the Intermittent Preventive Treatment methods, the Insecticide Treatment Net and Anti-Malarial Drug Policies, among other interventions, aimed at protecting them from contracting the disease.
Under the project, 36 community-based agents (CBA), drawn from Nakpanzoo, Zujung, Choggu/Sakasaka, Gumani and Gbambaya, all suburbs of Tamale, were also trained in the use of the Intermittent Preventive Treatment as a major tool of preventing malaria in pregnancy.
The foundation is being supported by the National Malaria Control Programme in collaboration with Global Fund.
The executive director of the foundation, Mr Ibrahim I. Tahiru, said the NGO was also monitoring the activities of the CBAs.
He said that the organisation was also encouraging pregnant women to go for anti-natal care.
The women were further advised to take their anti-malaria preventive drugs.
‘‘The mechanism employed to achieve these objectives is that the CBAs are provided with questionnaire to gather accurate and reliable data,’’ Mr Tahiru indicated.
The director said the CBAs had so far visited 300 households while an estimated 117 pregnant women had responded to the questionnaire.
An officer from the Tamale metropolitan office of the National Malaria Control Programme, Ms Asia Abubakari, advised residents to ensure that they lived in clean environments since mosquitoes which gave malaria thrived in unhygienic surroundings.
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