The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has commenced a nationwide Mass Drug Administration (MDA) exercise to combat three Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs); onchocerciasis (river blindness), lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), and schistosomiasis (bilharzia).
The exercise, from September 7 to 20, 2025, will cover 79 onchocerciasis-endemic districts in 15 regions, targeting about 6.3 million people.
Two districts in two regions endemic to lymphatic filariasis will also be reached, covering 380,000 people, while 13 districts in eight regions will benefit from community deworming against schistosomiasis.
At a press briefing in Accra last Friday, the Director-General of the GHS, Professor Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, in a speech read on his behalf said, the MDA formed part of efforts to eliminate NTDs by 2030 in line with global targets.
He explained that safe and effective medicines would be administered by trained community volunteers and health professionals to all eligible individuals from age five and above.
Prof. Akoriyea disclosed that Ghana has made progress against lymphatic filariasis, with transmission interrupted in 113 out of 116 endemic districts.
However, onchocerciasis remains endemic in 149 districts, while schistosomiasis continues to threaten children and women in communities with poor sanitation and unsafe water sources in almost all districts of Ghana.
The Director-General urged the public to fully participate in the exercise, stressing that controlling NTDs was critical to reducing poverty and improving public health.
“The burden of NTDs is low, but we are not out of the woods yet so please, let’s all get ourselves to be part of this exercise to eliminate these diseases in our communities,” he urged.
The Programme Manager of the NTDs Programme, Dr Joseph Larbi Opare, indicated that since the year 2000 when GHS begun the MDA, it has reduced the number of endemic districts for elephantiasis from 116 to just two, now.
This, he said, represents about 98 per cent progress towards eliminating the disease nationwide.
For Onchocerciasis, Dr Opare said recent studies show that the parasitic load is now less than five per cent in endemic areas, with some districts recording zero prevalence.
The programme manager encouraged members of the public to cooperate with health workers and volunteers during the exercise to achieve desired outcomes.
The Country Director of Sightsavers, a non-governmental organisation, Mr David Agyemang, appealed to government and other stakeholders to support efforts in mobilising funds for the elimination of NTDs.
“I’m calling on the government and stakeholders to join hands with us to support this very, very important program because unlike other programs of public health, this one, if we stop, we are going to retrogress.
It means that all the work done over the years will come to an end and we will have to start all over, which also means that all the time and the money that we have spent will be wasted,” he said.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
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