for the treatment of malaria and pneumonia at the same time, to be
administered on children under five years to reduce mortality rate,
has begun at the Dodowa Health Research Centre in the Eastern
Region.Mr Sylvanus Afesorgbor, a Research Assistant, working on the
antimalarial-antibiotics therapy at the Centre, said the treatment of
conditions associated with fevers in children was usually skewed
towards malaria.He said children suffering from other diseases, such
as pneumonia, could also present with fevers and headaches, but
treatment for pneumonia could be overlooked and children treated for
malaria.
The Research Assistant was speaking to a group of journalists from the
Africa Media and Malaria Research Network, who were on a visit to the
Centre to acquaint themselves with on-going malaria projects at
there.The visit was sponsored by the INDEPTH-Network and the Malaria
Clinical Trials Alliance, an African-led body set-up with a 17-million
dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr
Afesorgbor said with the conclusion of the study, also known as the
malaria-pneumonia project, doctors could combine the treatment of both
malaria and pneumonia through a single regimen.
He said the four-year study, which started in 2005, would involve 725
community-trained agents going into the Dangwe-West community to
administer the drugs on over a thousand children recruited for the
study.It is expected that with the conclusion of the study,
recommendations would be made for use of the treatment in the national
health delivery programme for children.The Dodowa Research Centre is
one of three research centres in Ghana researching into various
malaria initiatives.
06 April 07
