Taskforce set up to look at chloroquine treatment

A national malaria control task force has been set up to gather evidence to enable health authorities determine if there was the need to replace chloroquine as a first line of treatment for malaria.

Prof. David Ofori-Adjei, Director of Nouguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research (NMIMR), said there was an ongoing debate on the usefulness of chloroquine and issues such as cost analysis of a new drug had to be tackled in replacing chloroquine as a public health intervention for malaria control.

He was speaking at a three-day training workshop on health reporting for media practitioners on Wednesday in Accra.

It was organised by Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ghana National Drugs Programme (GNDP).

Emerging resistant malaria parasites and the abuse of chloroquine has brought to the fore arguments as to whether the drug should remain the main drug for the treatment of malaria in line with the current national policy on malaria control.

On herbal drugs for the treatment of malaria, Prof Ofori-Adjei said a dosage finding study was being carried out by the Centre for Research into Plant Medicine at Akwapim Mampong in the Eastern Region to find a standard dosage for some herbal drugs being used for malaria treatment.

He said as part of efforts by the GNDP to improve upon drug therapy, drug and therapeutic committees were being established in health facilities to promote good prescribing habits among health professionals.

He said patients' counselling centres have been established at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to enable health professionals to spend more time with patients when giving out information on drug therapy especially for chronic diseases.

He urged the government to see research as an important area and devote more money to it for the improvement of health of the people.