02 May 2016

There has been a drastic drop in Malaria cases from over 8 000 in the year 2000 to about 300 cases in 2015.

Speaking at the World Malaria Day commemoration in Manxotae recently, the Assistant Minister of Health Dr Alfred Madigele said the country continued to make strides towards eliminating malaria completely by 2018.

He said Botswana was among the eight countries in the SADC region that were doing well in the fight against malaria.

Dr Madigele said the country had aligned its strategic framework to the SADC Malaria Elimination Framework together with seven other countries in the region being Angola, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa,, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The assistant minister noted that his ministry recognised the ‘urgent’ need to intensify anti-malarial prevention measures, provide quality assured diagnostics testing and effective treatment to reduce the human suffering caused by malaria. 

He further stated that they had since reviewed the guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of malaria to strengthen malaria diagnosis and provide effective anti-malarial medicines, which would effect radical cure of those found to be having the malaria parasite so as to interrupt transmission from one person to another. 

The assistant minister pleaded with community members to welcome officers who were from time to time sent on malaria fighting missions.

Giving an overview of Malaria cases in the district, the District Health Management Team (DHMT) coordinator Dr Ivan Kgetse said since the beginning of the year they had recorded a total of 14 cases and such cases called for action from all concerned stakeholders. 

He said DHMT team had spread awareness messages to the community so that they too could have meaningful role in clearing all the areas that were prone to have mosquitoes breeding on them.

Dr Kgetse said they often gave out mosquito nets and emphasised correct use of them instead of being used as fishing nets.ENDS