The Sunday News
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S efforts to eliminate malaria are being derailed by a new mosquito only identified as anopheles unknown which is causing a majority of malaria related deaths in the country.
While the country and other nations in the region have made great strides in controlling mosquitoes and eliminating malaria, where prevalence has reduced by around 70 percent, epidemiologists are struggling to deal with a new crop of secondary transmitters that have taken over from the primary vectors.
Speaking at the 5th Pan-Africa Mosquito Control Association (Pamca) conference in Victoria Falls, an epidemiologist in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Professor Sungano Mharakurwa, who is an associate professor at Africa University said research was underway to study the new malaria transmitters.
“The ministry has made great strides in malaria control and the burden has drastically reduced to much fewer areas than before.
“What molecular surveillance data is showing is that the primary vectors that we know to transmit malaria in the country and region are absent now in those areas where malaria is,” he said.
Prof Mharakurwa said primary vectors such as anopheles arabiencis, funestas and gambiae have reduced owing to scaled up interventions of malaria control.
He said those districts that were known to be malaria prone were now almost free from the disease with only Manicaland left with high burden.
Of the 18 malaria prone site/ districts in the country, Chakowa and Hippo Valley remain high burden areas.
“We did some molecular identification of samples from various sites in the country and there are a number of species that seem to be taking over from the primary vectors because they carry more parasites and occurring in many more sites than the primary vectors that we have been targeting.
“What is worrying now are these secondary vectors and one of those we still haven’t been able to figure out what it is and is only identified as anopheles unknown. We think there could be more than one species of anopheles unknown and we need to figure out what it is so we can test for pesticides and target it,” said Prof Mharakurwa.
He said the Government will soon map out prevalence of the anopheles unknown as it is the one carrying more parasites and killing more people.
This is despite decline in malaria related deaths compared to previous years where the anopheles funestas accounted for about 7,4 percent of deaths.
Prof Mharakurwa said the conference enabled Zimbabwe to share notes with developed countries for interventions.
“We are making efforts and it’s great we attended this conference because we are meeting partners that are offering to do sequencing for us and bring some technologies which we don’t have in the country as we need to figure out on what this mosquito is to deal with it.
He said the burden of malaria in district such as Beitbridge and Gokwe had declined due to indoor residual spraying.
Pamca president Prof Charles Mbogo said the objective of the conference was for experts and other players to come together and synthesise information for control of vector related diseases in Africa.
He called for scaling up of efforts to completely eliminate malaria.
“Since introduction of indoor residual spraying there has been a prevalence and malaria cases reduction by almost 70 percent across Africa and we need to continue distributing nets and spraying every year,” he said.
Experts from close to 30 countries attended the conference that ran under the theme “Building the bridge between research and implementation: A necessity for vector borne disease elimination in Africa.” Pamca was established 2009 and launched in 2013.
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