Bliss GVS Pharma Ghana has extended its donation of antimalarial drugs to the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
The gesture, worth GH¢30,000, forms part of activities geared toward the celebration of this year’s World Malaria Day, which will be marked on Monday, April 25 and is to help in the fight against malaria.
This is in line with the company’s ACT for Africa Campaign, an initiative toward a malaria free continent.
Presenting the medicines on behalf of the company, Medical Representative for Bliss GVS Pharma Ghana in Tamale, Seidu Ibrahim Mumuni, reiterated the company’s commitment to the fight against malaria.
“Malaria has been crippling us as a country, and also the rest of Africa, so we have been leading the initiative to provide certain antimalarial drugs – particularly LONART – to combat and eradicate malaria from Ghana and Africa at large,” he said.
Mr. Mumuni further explained that the donation is also aimed at creating awareness and empowering healthcare providers to be able to reduce the malaria burden in Ghana and Africa.
He said Bliss GVS Pharma Ghana will continue the donations in some selected regions of the country as it has already begun, and added that the team will also engage in community health talks to educate people on personal hygiene and other preventive measures against malaria.
“We are doing these donations across the nation. Last week, we did the first donation at the Koforidua Regional Hospital and we are here at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. We will be going to other parts of the country to do similar donations. It is our hope that these donations will go a long way to help the needy access healthcare. The ‘Act for Africa’ campaign is not only about donations. We also include educating the communities around us to create health-awareness,” he said.
Receiving the donation on behalf of the hospital, Dr. Adam Atiku of the Tamale Teaching Hospital appreciated the gesture and commended Bliss GVS Pharma Ghana for its instrumental role in the health sector.
He indicated that malaria is the leading cause of admissions at the children’s ward, and leading cause of attendance at the hospital’s poly clinic.
“The fight against malaria is still very important to us, and donations such as these will help us. People from the hinterlands come here for malaria treatment but do not have the resources to buy the basic antimalarial drugs, so donations such as these will help us to support them,” he said.
Dr. Atiku added the drugs will also be used to treat children who have malaria, so as to curb an increasing mortality rate.
Also expressing appreciation for the donation, Director of Pharmacy for the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Dr. Salifu Alhassan Tiah, disclosed that malaria is among the top-ten leading causes of deaths in the hospital; and so such donations will go a long way to help fight against the disease.
“I believe that this is not going to be the end of it; we expect we will keep this relationship into the future so that together we can all combat this monster called malaria,” he said.
Health talk
Bliss GVS Pharma Ghana also continued its visit to the Nurses and Midwives Training College in Tamale, where the company donated antimalarial drugs and other medicines worth GH¢8,000.
After the donation, the Medical Representative for Bliss GVS Pharma Ghana in Tamale, Mr. Seidu Ibrahim Mumuni, advised students to visit the hospital and get tested for malaria whenever they show symptoms of it.
He discouraged them from self-medicating, describing the act as very dangerous.
For her part, Madam Angakumpo Dorithy Talata, Staff Secretary Nurses and Midwives Training College, educated the students on personal hygiene and advised them to bathe at least twice a day, drink more water and eat healthily to keep their immune systems always strong.
She also called for future collaborations between the school and Bliss GVS Pharma toward the common goal of eradicating malaria.
