A research fellow at the Kintampo Health Research Centre, Dr. Frank Baiden has cautioned medical practitioners against the treatment of malaria without testing and confirming the disease in patients.He was speaking at a three-day media sensitization workshop on Malaria held for journalists at Dodowa in Accra.
The workshop, organized by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN) in collaboration with MalariaCare under the theme “the media as partners in the T3 strategy” was aimed at equipping practicing journalists with accurate and relevant information on the Malaria disease in Ghana.
The officer at MalariaCare stated that the prevalence rate of Malaria in Ghana had gradually decreased hence the need for a paradigm shift in the way suspected Malaria cases were treated at hospitals. Dr. Baiden noted that, there was the need for medical doctors to explore other causes of fever cases and headaches reported at health facilities and treat them appropriately rather than presumptively prescribing and administering anti-malarial drugs.
“That is bad practice and should not be continued. The epidemiology of the disease shows that the disease has gone down therefore; other causes of fevers must be explored, identified and appropriately treated” he said.
Dr. Baiden further urged Ghanaians especially medical practitioners to embrace the World Health Organization’s new ‘T3 strategy’ of testing before treating malaria cases and tracking patients.
The T3 strategy requires that patients who report to health facilities be tested and confirmed positive of Malaria by Microscopy or the use of the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT).
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