Malaria remains the leading cause of Out-Patient Department (OPD) attendance in the Central Gonja District, but the Central Gonja District Health Directorate says the disease burden is trending downward compared to last year.
This was disclosed at the Mid-Year Performance Review Meeting organised by the Savannah Regional Health Directorate, held at the Savannah Regional Coordinating Council conference hall in Damongo.
Presenting the district’s half-year statistics for 2025 and 2026, health officials revealed that malaria cases recorded at OPD dropped from 6,459 in the first half of 2025 to 5,474 in the same period of 2026. Upper Respiratory Tract Infections moved up to the second position with 4,705 cases, overtaking Diarrhoea Diseases, which recorded 4,573 cases and dropped to third place. Other conditions on the top-ten list included Acute Urinary Tract Infection, Typhoid Fever, Rheumatism and Joint Pains, Septicaemia, Anaemia, Ulcer, and Pneumonia, which rose sharply from 717 cases to 1,000.
On malaria testing, the Directorate reported that testing rates across all sub-districts, Buipe, Kusawgu, Mpaha, Tulwei, Yala, Yapei, and the Central Gonja district as a whole have remained consistently high, mostly between 99 and 100 percent from 2024 through 2026, indicating that nearly every suspected malaria case is being confirmed through testing before treatment.
On health insurance coverage, the presentation showed improvement in most sub-districts. Central Gonja’s overall insured OPD attendance rose from 77.4 percent in 2024 to 80.7 percent in 2026. Kusawgu recorded the highest coverage at 88.2 percent, while Tuluwe, despite recording the lowest coverage among the sub-districts, showed the most significant improvement, rising from 48.75 percent in 2024 to 67.29 percent in 2026.
Health officials attributed the gains in insurance coverage and testing to sustained public education and improved access to National Health Insurance Scheme registration within the district.
The data was prepared by Dawuda Mohammed of the Central Gonja District Health Information Management Unit and forms part of ongoing efforts by the Savannah Regional Health Directorate to track and improve health outcomes across the region.
