Accra, June 4, GNA - China on Thursday donated anti-malaria drugs worth 280,000 dollars to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to assist Ghana to overcome the scourge of malaria.

The donation was in response to the challenge of meeting the Millennium Development Goal on health by 2015. Dr Elias Sory, Director-General of Ghana Health Service (GHS), who received the drugs said: "We are encouraged by this partnership since China has the experience of eradicating malaria, developing its infrastructure, human resource and innovations for health to the extent that Ghana has a lot to learn from this partnership." He said experts in the development of anti-malaria drugs from China were in discussion with the Ministry of Health to move Ghana to the malaria pre-eradication stage through piloting an aggressive and integrated control strategy, including mass-prophylactic medication, early diagnosis and treatment, mass outdoor larvicidal and indoor-residual spraying.

Dr Sory added that whilst Ghana appreciated the donation of the third consignment of Artemisinin-based anti-malarial drugs, the country was prepared to partner with a strategic investor or donor for technology transfer to derive its own generic brands of the drug. This would ensure the effectiveness and success of the strategy of universal access to malaria control logistics and mass application. Mr Yu Wenzhe, Chinese Ambassador in Ghana, said China would be sending the first team of 76 doctors to work in some selected hospitals in Accra.

He expressed the hope that the medications would be put to good use to provide affordable and quality health care. 4 June 09