Malaria cases go down

By Nokuthaba Nkomo Last updated May 23, 2020

Nokuthaba Nkomo
STAFF WRITER
nkomon@dailynews.co.zw

©️ HEALTH minister Obadiah Moyo has revealed that malaria cases have gone down by 18 percent countrywide this week following government’s interventions in hardest hit areas.

The government has been distributing mosquito nets and conducting indoor residual spraying to curb the spread of the disease in the country.

Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West, Manicaland, East and Matabeleland South provinces were the hardest hit by the outbreak.

Moyo, during a post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday, told journalists that weekly malaria cases had gone down by 18 percent following the interventions.

“Review of our week 19 results shows that there is an 18 percent drop on weekly reported cases from 26 103 in week 18 to 21 430 in week 19.
“Malaria mortality, however, remains elevated. We have 265 malaria deaths that have been reported,” the minister said.

He added that the malaria programme had also been integrated with the Covid-19 response, especially in areas where the country is experiencing outbreaks.

“In the context of Covid-19 precautions, the ministry of Health, with increasing partnership as well as corporate efforts, is intensifying malaria interventions to reverse the upsurge of the malaria situation in Zimbabwe,” Moyo added.

This comes as the government recently complained that the malaria outbreak was proving difficult to contain in Mashonaland Central due to high mining and agricultural activities, which were exposing most miners to mosquito bites in the bush.

Mashonaland Central provincial Epidemiology and Disease Control officer Stanley Tapesana recently said despite measures that have been implemented to fight the disease, a lot of socio-economic activities that expose populations to malaria, such as mining, were derailing government’s progress.

“For each district we have different preventive measures like indoor residual spraying before the rainy season. When we have outbreaks, we also do targeted spraying in areas.

“In our province, we have artisanal miners in Mazowe, Mt Darwin and Shamva and they are exposed to malaria because they will be doing their mining in the bush without any protection.

“They do not have formal structures like houses that we can spray and when we issue mosquito nets, it’s not feasible for them to use them in the bush,” Tapesana said.

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