Kumasi, Aug 18, GNA - The Community Health Department of the School of Medical Sciences (SMS) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Sunday organised a sensitization workshop on malaria for residents in the area. The workshop, organised in collaboration with the Unit Committee of the Bomso-KNUST electoral area, treated the causes and symptoms of malaria and its prevention. Mr William Kwame Fordjour, Assemblyman for the area said malaria is a deadly disease and that it was high time Ghanaians embarked on measures to curb it.

He said it behoved on them to always keep their environments clean by clearing choked gutters and bushy areas since mosquitoes that transmitted malaria bred in such environments. Mr Fordjour said as part of measures to reduce malaria in the community, the Community Health Department last month trained 40 community medicine distributors at the KNUST to administer anti-malaria drugs especially Artesunate Amodiaquine.

He said the trainees were selected from the Asokwa, Oforikrom and Asawasi sub-metros and would embark on outreach programmes to educate the public on the prevention of malaria. The Reverend Dr Edmund Nii Laryea Browne, Head of the Community Health Department of the KNUST, in a message delivered on his behalf, appealed to the media to liaise effectively with government in curbing malaria for the socio-economic development of the country. Miss Comfort Asare and Madam Cecilia Sackey, two of the trainees who were selected from the Bomso/KNUST electoral area, were presented with certificates and first aid boxes.