Accra, July 27, GNA - The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) says it is poised to eliminate Malaria in the sub-region by 2015. To this end, Mr James Victor Gbeho, President of the ECOWAS Commission said a partnership agreement had been signed with Cuba and Venezuela to achieve the malaria target within the next four years. He said Cuba would provide technical support by transferring the technology for setting up pharmaceutical plants for production and the application of bio-larvicides for vector control.

Venezuela on the other hand would provide the financial support for th= e pharmaceutical plants. "ECOWAS will also provide political advocacy and commitment without which we will not achieve the elimination of malaria by 2015", Mr Gbeho s= aid when he addressed the opening of a two-day workshop on Malaria Elimination Campaign in ECOWAS on Wednesday in Accra.

The workshop brought together health experts from the 15 ECOWAS states in charge of malaria control to discuss and share experiences on ways and means to accelerate malaria control for sustained health and social-economi= c impact. It would also serve as a platform to develop a road map towards malari= a elimination in ECOWAS by 2015 through the development and adherence to strategic plan with implementation, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Mr Gbeho said ECOWAS had adopted an integrated approach towards malari= a elimination with emphasis on vector control component to compliment the ongoing efforts at country level on access to treatment and mosquito net distribution.

"The field visit on Ghana's experience on the use of biolarvicides= for malaria vector control in partnership with Labiofam-Cuba, will better infor= m ECOWAS members on the effective implementation of a vector control component", he said. According to him, the Commission had set-up a task force to embark on an aggressive awareness creation, to assess malaria infection situations in countries and its socio-economic impact and to promote civil society participation in the fight against malaria. Dr Felicia Owusua-Antwi, a representative from the World Health Organisation noted that enhanced malaria control efforts over the last ten years had resulted in a clear downwards disease trends in 22 countries of which 12 are from Africa.

She said several countries with high incidence of malaria, had been able to scale up proven cost effective interventions resulting in a decline of at least 50 per cent of malaria morbidity and mortality. Dr Owusua-Antwi said it was advisable to involve universal coverage an= d potent tools with stronger heath systems in eliminating malaria where it is high and stable. "We must accelerate implementation of high impact interventions towa= rds sustained control before re-orienting programs based on robust surveillance", she said.

In that regard, she added that it was important to acknowledge the remarkable effort of Cape Verde, where the ECOWAS Strategic Plan 2011 to 2020 target malaria pre elimination. Dr Owusua-Antwi again said malaria elimination would require unprecedented leadership, efforts and resources from governments, partners and communities.

She said WHO would continue to provide normative guidelines and technical assistance to programs to combat malaria.