Malaria prevalence in children declines by a third in the past decade but the prevalence in rural areas is about three times as high compared to urban, preliminary findings on malaria in children from the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey has shown.
Malaria prevalence in children aged six to 59 months is 8.6%, according to microscopy results.
The malaria prevalence in rural areas (12.8%) is about three times that of urban (4.3%). Greater Accra (2.0%) has the lowest prevalence followed by Western North (4.4%) and Volta (6.4%).
The regions with the highest prevalence of malaria according to microscopy results are Oti (15.0%), Upper West (13.4%), and the Upper East (12.2%) regions. In all, half of the 16 regions record malaria prevalence above 10%.
The survey results also indicate that the prevalence of malaria in children has declined over the past eight years, falling by more than a third from 26.7% in 2014 to 8.6% in 2022.
Administrative data provided by the Ghana Health Service from District Health Information Management System (DHIMS) indicates that the malaria prevalence rate among pregnant women has also declined from 3.3% in 2019 to 2.4% in 2022.
The malaria prevalence in 2022 is highest in the Oti Region (7.0%) followed by the Savannah Region (5.4%), which are the only two regions to record prevalence more than double the national average.
The lowest prevalence in pregnant women is recorded in the Greater Accra Region (0.2%). Overall, the total number of Outpatient Department (OPD) malaria cases recorded in DHIMS declined from 6.1 million in 2019 to 5.2 million in 2022.
The East Mamprusi district in the North East Region (73,782) records the highest number of OPD malaria cases followed by Jaman North (63,776) and Jaman South (55,672).
Eight in every 10 districts (211 of 261 districts) districts have more than 10,000 OPD malaria cases in 2022.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) released these statistics on World Malaria Day 2023. The theme for the year is “Time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement”.
The 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey Key Findings Report will be released in May 2023.
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