There have been 54 officially recorded malaria deaths in Ghana between January and March 2020, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed, indicating that Sixteen of the dead are children under five years.
Over one million people more reportedly tested positive for the disease during the period.
Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, says citizens should observe preventive measures to avert another public health disaster in Ghana.
Dr. Aboagye said pregnant women were to take all recommended doses of Sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine (SP) to keep themselves and their unborn babies safe from malaria and also comply with malaria treatment as prescribed.
These were contained in a statement, issued in Accra by the (GHS) in commemoration of the 2020 World Malaria Day.
A breakdown of malaria cases in Ghana in the first quarter of the year shows a total of 1,001,070 officially confirmed cases from approximately 2,346,677 tested suspected cases.
The other half simply exhibited symptoms similar to malaria but could mean any other disease, the GHS data indicated.
Out of the confirmed cases, 21,201 were children under five years, while 28,764 were pregnant women.
Ghana has made some gains in significantly reducing malaria-related deaths in all ages, from 2,799 in 2012 to 333 by the end of 2019.
“In 2012, the country recorded eight malaria deaths every day but this was reduced to one malaria death every day in 2019,” the GHS said.