Malaria accounts for 33 per cent of all deaths in children under five. Statistics from health facilities suggests that malaria continues to be the number one cause of ill-health, accounting for 38 per cent of all cases reported at Out Patients Department (OPD), and 36 per cent of all hospital admissions. Dr. Keizah Malm, Deputy Programme Manager of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), disclosed this in Accra during the African Cup of Nations 2013 malaria campaign programme aimed at fighting the disease in Africa. After this statistics, I asked myself what are we doing to curb this social menace? The funny answer that came from my mouth was adverts . I guess that is what I see. When I see all these numerous adverts on TV and radio telling us to sleep in treated nets and the use of insecticides, I laugh because the rate of malaria has not reduced after all these numerous adverts and all that on TVs and radios Dr. Keizah said “Malaria which is hyper-epidemic in all parts of Ghana has been a major health challenge.”

 She said the GHS admitted 14 per cent of OPD attendance of pregnant women with the disease out of which nine per cent of maternal deaths occurred in 2008, noting “malaria continues to pose a threat to our lives.” The question is then why is malaria still killing us? The answer is simple; how is malaria going to reduce when we still have choked gutters and stagnant water around which breed all these mosquitoes that cause malaria. Why do we talk of the treated nets instead of trying to clean our environment; the source of all these mosquitoes? Funny, I guess people should rather use these treated nets to make clothes and wear them instead because sometimes we get bitten by mosquitoes before we even sleep. I was shocked to see choked gutters and drains when I visited Accra, the nation’s capital. Just in front of the V.I.P station, circle; I was amazed to see stagnant water and choked drains. Mosquitoes might bite people who sell around that place before they even go to sleep in their mosquito nets in their various houses. This makes sleeping in these treated nets very useless I must admit. I don’t see the need for government and NGOs to spend a lot of money on adverts on TV and radio while the environment is not free from mosquitoes. Why don’t we tackle the source of malaria with these resources? Why are we allowing them to breed before we try to prevent them (mosquitoes). Even if there should be adverts; it should not be on the use of treated nets. It should be on ways of getting the environment free from mosquitoes. If a Mosquitoes Raid Team is formed in every district and municipality and their work is to see to it that there are no choked gutters and drains as well as spraying the environment with insecticide; I guess it would go a long way to reduce mosquitoes hence malaria. The team should be equipped and also paid with all these monies we spend on seminars and TV and radio adverts on malaria.