FEBRUARY 8

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DAILY HERITAGE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019
05
Editorial
We must conduct malaria test before taking medication
A COMMERCIAL currently running
on national television is urging
Ghanaians to stop the self-diagnoses
whenever they are under the weather
because it could be fatal.
The message of the ad is that we
all need to avail ourselves for
thorough test before taking
prescribed malaria drugs.
Many a time, we are quick to
assume that we have malaria
whenever we feel feverish and go in
for self-medication. The danger is
that considering the potency of some
malaria drugs we could be hurting our
organs instead of healing.
In Uganda, a study that sought to
ensure diagnostic tests for malaria
before prescription helped to reduce
over prescription by as high as 73%.
The Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT)
in registered drug shops in a highly
endemic region in Uganda
substantially reduced over diagnosis
of malaria, improving the use of
valuable malaria drugs.
Most of the 15,000 patients who
visited drug shops with a fever chose
to buy an RDT when offered one by
the trained vendors taking part in the
study. Once they performed the test,
results showed that less than 60% of
the patients had, in fact, malaria. The
vendors usually complied with the
test results, reducing over prescription
of malaria drugs by 73%.
The researchers from the
Artemisinin-based Combination
Therapy Consortium at the Ministry
of Health in Uganda and the London
School of Hygiene & Tropical
Medicine in the UK carried out the
study because up to 80% of malaria
cases in Uganda were treated in the
private sector.
The private sector is a common
source of treatment in many other
malaria-endemic areas, especially
where there is poor access to public
health facilities. Patients buy antimalarial
drugs in shops to medicate
themselves, although malaria is not
always the cause of their fever, and
thus inappropriate treatment is very
common.
Prof. Anthony Mbonye from the
Ugandan Ministry of Health and lead
author of the study, said: “Our
findings show that it is feasible to
collaborate with the private health
sector and introduce malaria RDTs in
drug shops. The next step is to refine
the strategy and understand the cost
implications of scaling it up in
Uganda. Our long term aim is to
provide evidence to help the World
Health Organization develop
guidance to improve malaria
treatment in the private sector.”
The DAILY HERITAGE is
aware that some pharmacies in
Ghana have begun insisting that tests
are run before prescriptions are given
for the treatment of malaria.
We wish to call on all to support
the campaign so as to reduce
significantly complicated cases that
arise due to taking drugs for the
wrong ailments.
14yr-old pupil testifies
in Major Mahama trial
BY MUNTALLA INUSAH
muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com.gh
AFOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD
pupil of the Roman Catholic
Basic School at New Obuasi
(formerly Denkyira Obuasi) in
the Central Region has appeared
in court to testify about how her father’s
gun landed in the hands of one of the
14 accused persons, Akwasi Asante.
The form two pupil (name withheld),
while being led by Mrs Evelyn Keelson,
Chief State Attorney to give evidence as the
sixth prosecutions witness, said Asante took
her father’s gun without his (father’s) permission.
According to her, on May 29, 2017, she
returned home from school to pick her
pocket money and upon reaching the house,
she realised there was nobody home. She
said moments after opening the door to
their room, Asante popped up and entered
the room to pick the gun from it.
She also said when she asked him twice
where he (Asante) was taking the gun to,
Asante never answered her, so she locked
the door and left for school.
The witness told the court that, upon
• Late Major Maxwell Mahama
her return from school, he informed the father
and the father reported the matter to
the police. He subsequently identified Asante
as he stood in the dock at the court.
Cross-examination
When asked under cross-examination
from the defence if she had read the statement
made to the police in 2017, she
replied in the negative but said she had
memory of all those incidents.
When asked if she had told the police
the gun was not functioning, he responded
in the affirmative.
Counsel again asked how she was able to
know the gun was not functioning and she
replied that her father had stopped using it
for a while. She also told the court that the
accused person sometimes came for the gun
from his father to kill pigs and had always
done so with the prior notice of her father
or mother.
When asked of her relation with Asante,
she said they are not related but he is someone
who comes to the area to play draught.
She also said she did not recall the last time
the accused person came for the gun prior
to the May 29 incident.
The court, presided over by Justice
Mariama Owusu, a Court of Appeal judge
sitting with additional responsibility as a
High Court judge, adjourned the case to
Feb 12, 2019 for further cross-examination.
Fourteen persons are standing trial at the
Accra High Court over the killing of Major
Mahama, who was an Officer of the 5th Infantry
Battalion, at Burma Camp.
So far, Warrant Officer Sabi Kwasi, who
was a member of the late soldier’s team,
Madam Esther Tawiah and Kojo Nfum
have all given their evidence.
Abbeyman family
accuses police of
violating law on
land acquisition
• READ FROM PAGE 2
(IGP), noted that “surprisingly, all efforts to
get the police to open the padlock that they
have put on our gate have proved futile as the
police remain adamant.
“Sir, we see the attitude of the police to
be in violation of the laws governing land acquisition.”
They have, therefore, appealed to the IGP
to use his good offices to ensure quick resolution
of the impasse “as bags of Portland
Cement that we have stored on the property
have started hardening up.”
Mr Boahene, in an interview, complained
that because the place had been locked he
was unable to access the land and a container
full of cement had been left to rot there.
When contacted on phone to react to the
issue, the Director of Police Estates Department,
Chief Joshua Coppson, said the issue
had come to their attention and that they had
worked on it and referred it to the appropriate
quarters to deal with it.
But, when Nii Buabeng and his elders visited
the Property Fraud Unit of the Ghana
Police last Monday, they were told they did
not have his petition on file.