The Sunday News
THE country has stepped up efforts to eradicate malaria, with over three million insecticide treated mosquito nets having been distributed to households in all the country’s 47 malaria prone districts.
This comes against a backdrop of a significant decrease in the number of malaria cases recorded so far this year compared to the same period in the last two years.
Programme manager of the malaria control unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Joseph Mberikunashe told Sunday News last week that his department had started malaria prevention exercises ahead of the summer season.
Malaria cases surge during the summer season, particularly after the onset of the rains when mosquitos start breeding.
Dr Mberikunashe said his department had started anti-mosquito spraying campaigns in all the 47 endemic districts in the country to contain breeding of the parasites that cause malaria.
He said over 99 percent of the targeted prevention work had been covered so far.
“We have already started spraying campaigns in all the eight provinces, excluding Harare and Bulawayo. We have 47 endemic districts and these are along our borders, and that is where our interventions are concentrated, particularly areas near the Mozambican border.
“We have also distributed three million treated nets to households in those 47 districts after profiling each household. Each household got nets according to the number of sleeping places available.
“So far about 99 percent of our target has been covered and we believe this will go a long way in reducing the number of cases and deaths,” he said.
Dr Mberikunashe noted that the country had in the first half of this year recorded fewer cases of malaria compared to the same period last year.
Malaria deaths have also significantly gone down.
At least 258 239 cases of malaria were recorded in the first half of this year compared to 467 700 that were recorded during the same period in 2014.
About 587 people died of malaria in the first six months of 2014 compared to 354 deaths that were recorded in the first half of this year.
Dr Mberikunashe said his department was anticipating a continued decrease in the number of malaria cases and deaths.
“This year has recorded fewer cases compared to the past two years, that is 2013 and 2014. When you look at the figures you will find out that we recorded a 50 percent decrease in both cases and deaths. Considering that we passed the peak period between February and April, we are not anticipating the cases to increase that much,” he said.
Dr Mberikunashe attributed the significant decrease in malaria cases and deaths to a number of factors, among them deliberate efforts by Government in conjunction with its partners to control the disease.
“We have introduced a new insecticide in areas where the mosquito was starting to be resistant to the insecticide that we were using. That in a big way helped in reducing the cases.
“Areas such as Mutasa and Nyanga districts in Manicaland province used to be the most affected by malaria but ever since we introduced the insecticide, the areas have moved to number four and five on our rankings of areas that are hardest hit,” he said.
Dr Mberikunashe also attributed the decrease in malaria cases and deaths to media campaigns by the Health Ministry which he said has increased awareness among people.
He, however, bemoaned delays by most people in seeking treatment which he said was one of the reasons malaria continued to claim lives.
The malaria control unit programme manager said efforts to fight malaria will be increased until cases are reduced and deaths as a result of the disease are totally eradicated.
“While we are making strides in controlling the disease, the challenge that we have is that some people delay seeking treatment which results in a lot of deaths being recorded. The message we are putting across to people is that malaria kills and they should seek treatment as soon as they show symptoms of the disease.
“We are concerned about the number of deaths and we will continue fighting until we achieve our goal which is to have zero deaths,” he said.
Malaria is caused by a type of mosquito known as Anopheles. At the turn of the millennium Zimbabwe recorded an estimated two million cases of malaria per year ranking as one of the countries with the highest incidence rate of the disease.
