THE Integrated Tamale Fruit Company (ITFC), a fruit processing company in the Northern Region, has joined forces with the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) to strengthen the fight against malaria.
The company is supporting the NMCP to reach out to farmers in its operational communities to educate them on malaria prevention techniques.
It would also institute a workplace malaria control initiative that would build the capacity of its workers to stay uninfected.
The management of the ITFC made these commitments when it held discussions with a combined team of personnel from the NMCP, Promoting Malaria Prevention and Treatment (ProMPT) Ghana, Improving Malaria Diagnostics (IMaD), Research Triangle International (RTI) and Vestergaard Frandsen, manufacturers of PermaNet.
The team had paid a visit to the ITFC’s factory to brief the management and workers of the company on the current status of malaria control in the country.
As part of the visit, the team assisted the company to hold its maiden malaria sensitisation forum, during which 300 Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) were distributed to the workers.
The team also screened 92 workers of ITFC who showed signs and symptoms of malaria and 29 of them received medication after they were diagnosed of carrying the parasite.
The Malaria Technical Advisor of ProMPT Ghana, Dr Richmond Ato Selby, said the decision to bring on board ITFC was part of a countrywide initiative that sought to get corporate bodies involved in the fight against malaria.
“We want to foster greater partnership with these companies to enable us to bring the anti-malaria campaign to their doorsteps and also encourage them to support malaria control at the local, regional or national levels,” he explained.
A medical entomologist with the NMCP, Mrs Aba Baffoe-Wilmot, noted that there were various ways that companies could support the malaria control programme.
“As a company, you could help us address the challenges facing the supply of essential malaria drugs to clinics around your catchment areas,” she stated.
Mrs Baffoe-Wilmot reminded the workers of the need to use the nets provided them in order not to expose themselves to mosquito bites and defeat the objective of the control programme.
“Is it not unwise for us to cite reasons of discomfort for not using the nets, whilst allowing ourselves to be feasted upon by mosquitoes, thereby increasing our risk of getting infected with malaria?” she stated.
The Assistant General Manager of the ITFC, Mr James Amaligo, said the company would attach a health officer to each of its farmer groups to constantly sensitise the farmers and their families to the malaria disease.
He said already the company was implementing an HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B prevention campaigns and was therefore incorporating the Anti-Malaria initiative into it.
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