Dr. Michael Tetteh, Head of the Herbal Unit at the Tema General Hospital, has recommended that patients get tested for malaria before starting any related treatments.
According to him, a patient must test positive for artemisinin before receiving artemisin-based combination treatments, or ACTs. He said that after being bitten by a female Anopheles mosquito, malaria parasites show up in the body after 10–15 days.
This was revealed by Dr. Tetteh, who is also an herbal physician, during the weekly “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility!” campaign by Ghana News Agency to encourage discussion about health.
The herbal physician at Tema General Hospital stated that artemether-lumefantrine drugs would be administered to individuals showing signs of malaria.
Instead of starting at the pharmacy, he recommended that people go to health services. It is advisable to visit a health center to undergo the blood film test method, which is more specific and provides a diagnosis of malaria, even if the fast test results are negative.
The World Health Organization does not support the practice of not testing before starting treatment for malaria; as a result, using medication continuously without testing will now lead to an increase of parasite resistance.
SOURCE: GNA
