Ghana National Malaria Control Programme

Ghana's effort to control malaria dates back to the 1950s, when colonial-era campaigns relied on drain construction, chloroquine-impregnated salt and aerial spraying, together with a weekly antimalarial tablet regimen nicknamed Sunday Sunday medicine, yet the disease remained one of the country's leading causes of premature death through the rest of the twentieth century. What began as the Malaria Control Unit within the Ministry of Health's Public Health Department, and today sits under the ministry's Disease Control Unit, was reorganized in 1999 around an aggressive Roll Back Malaria initiative emphasizing stronger health services and multi-sectoral and inter-sectoral partnerships. The programme has since worked through a series of national strategic plans, the first covering 2000 to 2010, a second running 2008 to 2015 to reflect the Millennium Development Goals, a third strategic plan for 2015 to 2020 published in August 2014, and most recently the National Malaria Elimination Strategic Plan for 2024 to 2028, which builds on the progress and lessons of the preceding 2021 to 2025 strategy as the programme shifts its ambition from control toward elimination.