Akyawkrom-Ashanti, Feb. 23, GNA - Artesunate-Amodiaquine has been identified as a safe, acceptable and an effective drug for home management of malaria in children under five years.

This was an outcome of a research on Home Management of Malaria (HMM) conducted by Department of Community Health of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) School of Medical Sciences (SMS) in 35 rural communities in the Juaben and Bomfa sub-districts of Ejisu-Juaben District of Ashanti.

Dr E. Nii Laryea Browne, Head of Department of Community Health and leader of the research team, announced this at a dissemination workshop on the outcome of the research held on Thursday at Akyawkrom-Ashanti. It was to sensitise health workers, assembly members, chiefs, community health volunteers, district directors of health services and other stakeholders from some selected districts in Ashanti region to discuss the findings of the research.

Dr Browne said objective of the research was to determine the feasibility, acceptability, safety and cost of using artesunate-amodiaquine for home management of malaria in young children in the district.

He said 99 per cent of mothers who took part in the research found the treatment highly effective for childhood malaria.

Dr Browne said two per cent of the children treated reported side effects in the form of itching, vomiting and weakness.

He said 70 per cent of mothers complied fully with instructions given by Community Drugs Distributors (CDDs) while 72 per cent of mothers could tell the correct prescription as given by the CDDs.

Dr Browne stressed the need for a new partnership in malaria management, treatment and called on policy makers, district assemblies and district mutual health insurance schemes to accept the HMM to reduce the cost of treating malaria in the country.

He appealed to stakeholders in health care delivery especially on children to mobilise the relevant political will and financial resources to ensure rapid scaling up of home management of malaria in rural communities in the country by using the pre-packed artesunate-amodiaquine, which was cheaper and effective.

Mr Peter Agyei-Baffour, Senior Lecturer at Department of Community Health, who gave the social science perspective of the research, said 99 per cent of mothers and caregivers perceived the intervention as being helpful and effective.

He said in addition, it reduced travelling cost, time and was easily available on demand and non-discriminatory.

Dr Badu Sarkodie, Ejisu-Juaben District Director of Health Services, said malaria continued to be the number of Out-Patient-Department (OPD) and admissions at health facilities in the district.

He stressed the need for new ways to combat the disease, which had become a burden for health workers.

The research provided a firm and conclusive evidence that, pre-packed artesunate-amodiaquine was safe, acceptable and effective drug for the management of malaria in the home and near-home settings in rural communities with poor or limited access to formal health care services. The drugs were given to respectable and gainfully employed individuals referred to as Community Drugs Distributors (CDDs).

Mothers and caregivers were made to obtain a unit-dose blister pack of the drug from the CDDs and administered to their children who had uncomplicated malaria.