Three children died of Malaria in the Asamankese Government Hospital of the Eastern Region in 2020 according to performance review report released.
Apart from Malaria, one each died of severe sepsis, tetanus and monastic neuroblastoma,bringing the number of Hospital deaths among children under five years in 2020 to six.
In 2018,top five causes of death among kids under five years were Pneumonia,Malnutrition,Meningitis and sepsis, and total death were eight while 2019 death were also eight with Aspiration Pneumonia, severe acute Malnutrition, Infective Gastroeteritis,cerebral abscess, Retroviral infection and other diseases.
Top five causes of under five admission(diseases) in 2020 were Malaria,Anaemia, Pneumonia,Sepsis,Urinary Tract Infection and all other diseases totaling 2,263 as compared to 2,643 in 2019 and the main five diseases were Malaria,Anaemia,Gastroenteritis,Pharypgitis,Enteric fever and other diseases.
Malaria was ranked number one in top ten causes of admission in the Hospital in 2020 with 2,164 cases diagnosed but in 2019,Malaria was second as Rheumatism and joint pain was number one while in 2018 was number two after Anaemia with 4,376 and 1,448 cases respectively.
Out of the 3.5 million cases of suspected malaria cases that were reported to the public health facilities in Ghana, 20,000 were children under the age of five. The disease thus accounts for 61 percent of hospital admissions of under-five children and 25 percent of under-five mortality.
Despite the significant investments to control malaria infection rates over the past years, infection rates remain significant in sub-Saharan Africa. This study investigates the association with use of large-scale malaria interventions such as: Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS), Insecticide Treated bed-Nets (ITN), and Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) strategies, and the prevalence of malaria among children under-five in Ghana.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Kofi Atakora
