GIVEN the huge investment in malaria prevention programmes over the last decade, deaths from the disease must have been eradicated by now.
Alas, that is not the case. Eradicating malaria seems too distant a prospect, at least in Manicaland. Statistics released by the National Malaria Control manager, Dr Joseph Mberikunashe, depict an unsettling spiral trend.
The disease’s evil venom is decimating lives, especially the poor rural folks.
By week-ending February 5, 2017, 28 deaths and 22 336 cases had been recorded in Manicaland, and worryingly, the stats more than doubled to 58 000 cases and 73 deaths by the week-ending March 18, 2017.
Chipinge and Mutare, which are two of the five districts that share a boarder stretching over 1 000km with Mozambique — a high transmission country — are the most afflicted districts in the province.
Acting Director for Health Services (City of Mutare) Dr Simon Mashavave said 128 malaria cases were reported this week, a downward trend from the 212 recorded two weeks ago.
The highest number of malaria cases in Mutare was 303 recorded in mid-February.
Malaria parasites are spread by bites from infected mosquitoes.
The disease is a major killer of the under-fives, along with pregnant women.
Given comprehensive interventions so far by Government and its numerous other partners targeted at eradicating the disease and promote healthy communities and families — one wonders why malaria still remains a very big challenge for Zimbabwe, and in particular, Manicaland. Manicaland keeps recording high cases of malaria prevalence, transmission and mortality, and is the “biggest contributor” of malaria burden in the country.
Malaria deaths are entirely preventable.
So why have efforts to eradicate it always fallen short?
Theoretically, it takes stopping mosquitoes from transmitting malaria parasites.
This can be done through available interventions, such as the distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets, spraying household walls and swampy areas with insecticides and rolling out new diagnostics and effective medicines to strengthen the management of any malaria infections.
The package of interventions, especially the long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets (LLINs), has proven to be a powerful arsenal capable of saving many lives.
Secondly, the Scale Up for Impact (SUFI) strategy — rapidly delivering malaria prevention interventions to achieve coverage of most or all at-risk populations—has been endorsed by the global Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, and has become the national malaria control standard in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular.
Our own ministry of health has been doing a lot, but the question remains why has the eradication of malaria remained a distant prospect?
Have the efforts and the current malaria control strategies been deployed far and wider enough to fully cover those populations at risk?
Has the culture of malaria prevention been effectively inculcated and become part of the fabric of life in every community?
A lost still has to be done to plug these and other gaps. Our communities are not malaria conscious. Most victims of malaria are treated with the combination drug — artemether-lumefantrine.
The rise in malaria deaths is also blamed on resistance. We suggest that there be discrete steps on the path between scale up and elimination and that, in most places, these steps can be taken using existing control methods such as indoor residual spraying, diagnostics and effective anti-malarial medicines.
Adaptation of these tools, guided by a focused strategy that continuously evolves to address the dynamic challenges of reducing transmission, challenges in accessing treatment and around denial and resistance, can ultimately result in Zimbabwe achieving zero transmission.
Zero malaria transmission would mean a true end to the plague of malaria illness and death.
We believe malaria can be eradicated.