ATU trains 200 students on accurate malaria diagnosis

The training workshop was to build and improve the capacities of participants, in Malaria microscopy procedures for specific and sure Malaria diagnosis which would lead to better case management outcomes in the country’s Malaria control efforts.
According to recent health reports, Malaria which tops all Out-Patient-Department visits in most parts of the country’s hospitals, also had a high mortality and morbidity.
Deputy Chief Medical Laboratory Scientist at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Benjamin Tetteh Mensah, during the opening of the two-day training, stated that the training formed part of the national efforts to control malaria cases across the country.
He said the expectation was that majority of the participants who are professionals in various labs across the country would be able to identify all parasite species and stages for effective case management at the end of the training.
According to Dr. Mensah, currently malaria treatment is embodied within making sure that there is proper diagnosis, and was optimistic that such a workshop will equip practitioners with the necessary skills to be able to diagnose properly.
“When the diagnosis is properly done, the treatment can be effected properly,” he noted.
He added that the training would improve the malaria microscopy skills of participants to validate and vouch results they prepare for medical doctors
Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science of ATU, Dr. Alice Mensah, emphasised that the training would expose students to current modes and techniques in diagnosis, as much as possible to boost their practice.
Malaria in Ghana, she recalled, accounts for 4% of the global burden and 7% of the malaria burden in West Africa and Malaria was responsible for 19% of all recorded deaths in Ghana as at 2016.
She therefore, stated, the training was timely to augment the efforts of the Ghana Health Service and Ministry of Health in ensuring that malaria parasites are accurately identified and quantified before treatment is initiated.

The students, she said, will be better equipped and malaria diagnostics taken a notch higher.

Source: John Elliot HAGAN, thefinderonline.com