10 Apr 2014

Botswana has, over the past 14 years, reduced the incidence of Malaria from 42 cases per 1 000 of the population in the year 2000 to 0.23 per 1000  in 2013.

Speaking at a press briefing to inform the media on the upcoming Racing Against Malaria 2 (RAM2) campaign, acting deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Ms Naledi Mlaudzi said the upcoming regional advocacy campaign was aimed at raising awareness about Malaria in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.

She said the campaign would be spearheaded by the National Malaria Control Programmes and Military Health services across the SADC region.

“Regionally, the coordination will be done by the Southern African Roll Back Partnership and SADC,” she said, adding that the campaign would take the form of a convoy of vehicles driving from Malawi passing through Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and ending in Angola where the commemoration of the World Malaria Day will be held on April 25, 2014.

Ms Mlaudzi said the campaign is a follow up campaign to a previous one which was held in 2003 (RAM1) and to the 2008 Zambezi River of Life Campaign. “This campaign has special focus on the communities of border areas to raise awareness about the threat that is posed by the disease,” she said.

She said the campaign’s general objective was to raise local, regional and international profile for malaria leading to an increased community awareness and mobilisation of resources for malaria control and elimination and to highlight the need for supporting scaling up of universal coverage in countries that are still in the control phase and the eventual malaria elimination in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.

Ms Mlaudzi said among others, the campaign specifically aims to identify gaps to sustain malaria service delivery in remote border districts/areas, mobilise leaders and empower communities for effective malaria elimination and support multi-sectoral action for malaria elimination.

With the theme of the campaign as “For a SADC free from Malaria Parasites,” there will be stopovers at cross borders areas between countries to conduct malaria control and elimination activities which include testing, mapping and treatment of malaria cases in communities, provision of health education and advocacy activities for malaria elimination resources.

The deputy permanent secretary also indicated that the campaign will be launched by the President of Malawi, Ms Joyce Banda on April 14, 2014.

“Our own World Malaria Day commemorations will be held in Kasane on April 21 2014,” she said, indicating that the malaria transmission season is still on.

“I would like to urge people living in Okavango, Ngami, Chobe, Bobirwa, Tutume and Boteti to use mosquito nets and accept reactive spraying during transmission seasons,” she said.

It has been reported that so far this year, 800 cases of malaria have been reported in Botswana while last year, the number stood at 456. ENDS