HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Malaria Cases On The Rise

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

HARARE, Mar 15 1999 (IPS) - A malaria epidemic is spreading throughout Southern Africa, placing the lives of millions at risk, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“All the signs show a severe malaria season for Southern Africa,” says Dr Shiva Murugasamtillay of the WHO Regional Office for Africa, based in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare.

Murugasamtillay says the months of March and April are the high risk periods in the region.

Southern Africa, with a population of about 195 million people, groups Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Last week the WHO issued a report on five Southern African countries — Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland and Namibia — showing an overall increase in malaria transmission in the region.

The report says 185,025 clinical cases and 275 clinical deaths had been reported in Zimbabwe by the end of February, compared with 177,195 cases and 269 deaths during the same period last year.

In Botswana, 8867 clinical cases and 10 clinical deaths had been reported by the third week of January, compared with 8142 clinical cases and nine clinical deaths by the same time last year.

“Earlier increases than normal were identified with a higher trend than previous years in Botswana. The most affected districts were Okavango, Ngami, Tutume, Botetei, and Chobe,” says the report.

South Africa is the only country in the region where WHO has recorded a decrease in the number of malaria cases. By the end of February 1999, 3826 cases and 19 deaths had been reported, compared with 4021 cases and 36 deaths by the same time last year.

Increases in the cases of the disease, however, have been identified in Mutale, Malamulele, Tonga, Ingwavuma districts in South Africa.

Swaziland and Namibia also have reported malaria epidemics.

Last year the WHO Regional Office for Africa said it was making preparations for a programme that will progressively reduce illness and deaths due to malaria in Africa over the next 25 years.

The programme, called the African Initiative for Malaria Control in the 21st Century (AIM), will be launched this year and will cover 42 countries of the African region of WHO.

This initiative will be implemented in phases and is expected to reduce illnesses and deaths resulting from malaria throughout Africa by 50 percent by 2010, by a further 30 percent by 2015 and by another 20 percent by 2025.

The ultimate goal, according to WHO, is that by 2030 “malaria will neither be the major contributor to mortality and morbidity nor of significant socio-economic consequence.”

Malaria is one of the leading health problems in Africa, South of the Sahara. Almost all the 550 million people in the region run the risk of malaria. The disease attacks between 270 and 480 million people and kills between 1.5 and 2.7 million each year.

“The problem is increasing as evidenced by the rise in the number of illnesses and deaths due to it. Areas where malaria was hardly ever known before, such as the highlands of Eastern and Southern Africa, are now having epidemics of it,” the WHO says.

“To make matters worse, the malaria parasite had developed resistance to some of the anti-malaria drugs and the mosquito had developed resistance to some insecticides,” it adds.

The economic consequences of malaria-related diseases are enormous. The direct and indirect losses due to malaria in Africa rose from 800 million US Dollars in 1987 to more than two billion US Dollars in 1997, according to the WHO.

Efforts to control or eradicate malaria in the region in the past have achieved only limited success. The new initiative, according to WHO, will provide a more coordinated framework for enhancing cooperation and collaboration among all organisations committed to the attainment of this goal.

The key features of the implementation of the initiative will be early treatment of malaria cases; promotion of the use of mosquito nets; prevention, detection or containment of epidemics; and strengthening of the capacities of countries and communities to combat the disease.

“We have the tools and we can significantly bring down the number of deaths and illnesses due to malaria within 10 to 15 years,” according to the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim M. Samba.