26 Aug 2013

Botswana is among 50 malaria endemic countries on track to reduce the malaria case incidence by 75 per cent in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Roll Back Malaria Targets for 2015.

The deputy director in department of public health, Mr Setshwano Mokgweetsinyana told Shorobe residents that the country has made incredible progress in the last decade, but sustaining gains will take extra effort until Malaria elimination is realised.

He said the country had managed to reduce the incidence of malaria from 28.7 cases per 1000 population in 2001 to 0.15 cases per 1000 population in 2012. Mr Mokgweetsinyana said the World Malaria Report of 2012, has revealed that 3.3 billion people were at risk of malaria in 2011 while 219 million cases and 660 000 deaths were recorded in 2010. 

The report, he said, also showed that of the 99 Malaria endemic countries, 50 are on track to reduce the malaria case incidence by 75 per cent in line with the World Health Organization and Roll Back Malaria Targets for 2015. “I am happy to announce that Botswana is part of this success story,” he added.

He said while efforts are on course to conduct active and passive case detection, notify, investigate, list and map all cases, there are other challenges such as deaths and infection, and limitation of resources. Mr Mokgweetsinyana said modern technology was required for rapid notification of cases and mapping of malaria transmission areas.

He also cited human resource capacity as a challenge in the area of surveillance and rapid response to contain secondary cases and outbreaks. He said this year, they adopted an additional vector control strategy designed to destroy the mosquito larvae and considerations are underway to introduce radical treatment to totally eliminate malaria parasites in the human host.

The ministry has instituted a mid-term review of the implementation of the Malaria Strategy Plan 2010-2015 to provide an update on the progress achieved in its implementation in relation to the set targets.

Mr Mokgweetsinyana appealed to the public to join hands with the government towards Malaria elimination in the country. He said the government’s efforts could not be successful without the contribution of partners and other stakeholders and urged all to play their role to eradicate Malaria by 2015.

He observed that they had been informed that some people use mosquito nets as fishing nets and urged the communities to stop the unacceptable habit. He noted that the government was putting measures in place to eradicate Malaria, adding that they had been engaging various partners and stakeholders in different forums such as Advocacy campaigns and Malaria partnership meetings to share plans and identify gaps that require extra resources mobilization.

“It is gratifying to see this bearing fruit as we have had partner contribution to our plan particularly in the area of distribution of treated mosquito nets”, he added. The deputy director said that Rotary Club of Gaborone which donated the treat Malaria nets, is one of their long time partners as they had been supportive since the launch of mass distribution of treated mosquito nets in 2010 at Gweta village. ENDS