Bawku (UE) Feb.16 (Azanduna) GNA-Participants at a workshop on the negative impact of malaria have been urged to wage war against malaria because it is the main cause of poverty in the Bawku area. The workshop, organized in Bawku on Wednesday sought to inform, educate, and communicate the negative impact of malaria on the socio-economic development of the people and its burden on the family, municipality and the nation.

The participants, drawn from Pusiga, Mandago, Sugudi, and Kaltimise, were taken through the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN), adoption of the intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy (ITPP), case management and home-base care (HBC) methods.

Rural Urban Women and Children Development Agency (RUWACDA), a non-governmental organization working in over 60 communities in the three northern regions, organized the workshop.

The Executive Director of RUWACDA, Mr Braimah Abdulai, said malaria was the leading cause of death among women and children less than five years. Also, statistics from the Ghana Health Service indicate that malaria accounted for than 61 percent of under-five hospital admissions and eight percent of pregnant women admissions.

Malaria was responsible for an estimated 22 percent under-five mortality and nine percent of maternal deaths in Ghana. Mr Abdulai called on the participants to take the training serious to contribute to the prevention and control of malaria so as to help reduce human and the socio-economic cost of malaria in the Bawku Municipality.