Health care service providers in the Upper East Region have attended a day’s capacity building workshop on the use of Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs).

The workshop, organised by the Institute of Social Research and Development (ISRAD), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), was aimed at empowering the service providers from the municipal and district health directorates in the Region.

Mr Abdul-Razak Issah, the Regional Coordinator of ISRAD, said the workshop was a refresher programme aimed at empowering health service providers to diagnose clients with suspected malaria cases before offering them treatment so that they could administer appropriate treatments to patients.

The workshop, he noted, was to empower the participants who are expected to go back to their jurisdictions to train other health service providers.

Ms Agnes Zizinya, the Acting Municipal Health Director, lauded the efforts of ISRAD and the DFID, a sponsor of the event, for complementing the efforts of the GHS in health care delivery in the country.

“We are very grateful to the DFID for sponsoring the programme and also providing RDTs to the municipal and district health directorates,” she said.

Ms Zizinya called on the participants to adhere strictly to the protocols and policy in diagnosing malaria before treatment to help curb the incidence of malaria.

Mr Collins Addo, the Municipal Malaria Focal person, said with the various malaria interventions including the supply of treated mosquito nets, the indoor residual spraying and the supply of the RDTs, the incidence of malaria in the region has reduced significantly.

He commended the NGO for supporting the GHS in the area of health education by organising durbars, radio discussions, video shows and the use of community volunteers among others.

There was demonstration on the use of RDTs to the participants who expressed their gratitude to the organisers of the workshop.