Ghana spends $760m to treat Malaria (9/04/09)

THE Country spent $760million on the treatment of Malaria last year, a report by the Ministry of Health has indicated.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey when the Ambassador of Spain, Mrs Julia Olmo made a courtesy call on him in his office last Tuesday.
The call was to officially introduce the Ambassador to the Minister, brief him on some health projects Spain had undertaken with the country and to strengthen relations between the two countries.
The Minister stated that his priority was to eliminate the malaria disease in the country and the ECOWAS sub-region in the next two years, with the help of other Health Ministers of the sub-region.
He said the serious implications of the disease was its high cost of treatment and low productivity in the country.
He expressed concern about the inadequate number of ambulances which hindered the delivery of quality emergency services in the country.
He said the country had only 41 ambulances for all the public hospitals in the country with only six of them operating in the Greater Accra Region.
Dr Yankey appealed to the Ambassador to help provide vehicular and air ambulances for the country to ensure the delivery of quality emergency services and save more lives through accidents and disasters.
The Ambassador of Spain informed the Minister of a 5 million Euro fund targeted for feasibility studies at the ministry.
She pledged her country’s continuous support to the health sector and prayed that the relationship between the two countries would grow stronger.