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Despite ongoing security challenges, Bawku Municipality achieved the second-highest coverage rate in Ghana’s Upper East Region for a critical malaria prevention programme.
The municipality reached 95.3% coverage in the first cycle of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), surpassing several peaceful districts, including Bolga, Talensi and Builsa North, according to Sydney Abilba, Upper East Region Focal Person in Charge of Malaria at the Regional Health Directorate.
“Bawku Municipal even did better than Bolga, Talensi, Builsa North, and then a lot of the districts,” Abilba said during a conversation with the media in Bolgatanga. “So Bawku Municipal, even amidst the conflict, had the second most achieved coverage that we had in the region.”
The SMC programme, launched in the Upper East Region in 2016, provides preventive antimalarial medication to children under five during the peak transmission season from May to November.
Community volunteers and health workers go house-to-house to administer amodiaquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine to eligible children aged 3 to 59 months.
Regional Program Achieves Strong Coverage
In the first cycle of this year’s programme, health workers registered 253,423 eligible children across the region’s 15 administrative districts and successfully dosed 252,755 children, achieving 89.1% regional coverage. The programme recorded only 38 minor adverse drug reactions, including temporary fever, vomiting and dizziness, representing a 0.015% adverse reaction rate among treated children.
All adverse reactions were managed successfully in collaboration with the Ghana Food and Drug Board, with no serious complications reported.
Dramatic Reduction in Malaria Cases and Deaths
The region has seen dramatic results from the eight-year intervention. Over the past three years (2022-2024), more than 30,000 fewer malaria cases have been recorded among children under five compared to previous years, representing a significant decline in malaria incidence rates.
Most significantly, the region has achieved zero deaths among children under five from malaria in recent years, down from previously recorded fatalities in this vulnerable population.
“People may see this figure as being nothing, but if you are a parent or a carer in a preventable condition like malaria, and you lose your child to that, I don’t think you’ll be very comfortable,” Abilba said. “So one life is a very important life.”
Garu District Leads Regional Performance
Garu district achieved the highest regional coverage in the first cycle, with Bawku Municipal ranking second among the region’s 15 administrative districts. The strong performance across districts demonstrates the programme’s effectiveness in reaching remote and challenging areas during the peak transmission period from May to November.
The success in Bawku is particularly noteworthy given the municipality’s ongoing security challenges. Abilba noted that community collaboration has been crucial to maintaining health services despite the conflict affecting both Bawku and neighbouring Binduri district.
“Our people, our brothers and sisters and families within the conflict-affected districts… we have all realised that the health of a child is everybody’s responsibility,” he said.
Monthly Cycles Target Peak Transmission Season
The second cycle of SMC is scheduled from June 30 to August 3, with monthly rounds continuing through September and November to maintain protection throughout the peak transmission period. Each dose provides antimalarial protection for approximately 28 days in children’s bloodstreams.
The programme targets the region’s rainfall pattern, which creates high malaria transmission conditions from May to November in Ghana’s northern belt. During this period, the risk of severe malaria—a life-threatening condition—increases significantly among children under five.
Comprehensive Prevention Strategy
Beyond SMC medication, Abilba emphasised that malaria prevention requires community-wide effort. He urged households to continue using bed nets distributed in 2024, noting that mosquitoes transmit not only malaria but also lymphatic filariasis, yellow fever and other vector-borne diseases.
“These are the times that we have a lot of mosquitoes, so they should use them, sleep under them, and ensure that they protect themselves against mosquito bites,” he said.
The Ghana Health Service continues to rely on support from community leaders, traditional authorities, assembly members and households to maintain the programme’s success against one of the country’s leading health threats, particularly for children and pregnant women classified as high-risk populations.
The programme’s success demonstrates effective collaboration between health authorities, donor partners and communities in addressing malaria, which remains a major health concern for Ghana’s health system, particularly in the northern regions where transmission rates are highest during the rainy season.
Reporting by Mark Smith in the Upper East Region
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