Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda says cases of Malaria in the country have reduced from an estimated 6.1 million malaria cases in 2016 to 4.2 million cases in 2022.
Speaking yesterday in Lilongwe during a press briefing on the SADC malaria week, Chiponda said the reduction is because of malaria control interventions which Government has put in place.
According to Chiponda, Malaria deaths have also been reduced from 4,000 malaria deaths in 2016 to 1,829 malaria deaths in 2022 and this is an indication that the country is doing well in the fight against malaria.
“We have gathered here today in solidarity with the other SADC countries to renew our efforts to eliminate malaria by 2030. The good thing about malaria is that we have the tools to prevent, treat, control and even to eliminate malaria in our region. All what we need to do is to continue working together and implement the WHO recommended strategies to the required scale,” said Chiponda.
Chiponda also noted that as a ministry they have put in place measures which will help to eliminate malaria by 2030.
She said the ministry has increased the proportion of population protected by at least one malaria vector control intervention from 37% in 2022 to at least 90% by 2030 as well as increased and sustained the proportion of suspected cases of Malaria that tested from 98% in 2022 to 100 % and treat all the confirmed cases by 2030.
“As a ministry we want to increase the uptake of at least 3 doses of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in pregnant women (with sulfadoxine pyrimethamine (SP)) from the 2022 baseline of 56% to 80% by 2030.
“We also want to sustain annual average stock out rate of less than 1% for all malaria first-line treatment throughout the Malaria Strategic Plan (2023-2030) period and to increase proportion of caregivers of under-five children who take action to seek appropriate malaria treatment within 24 hours of the onset of fever from 46% to 90% by 2030. These are some of the interventions we have put in place to eliminate malaria by 2030,” said Chiponda.
She also noted that the Ministry of Health has rolled out the Malaria vaccine to 11 districts and since the rolling out of the Malaria vaccine, a total number of 661,714 under five children have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
In his remarks, Bizwick Mwale Chief of Party for global fund grant at World Vision said right now World Vision with support from global fund is implementing a spraying campaign where they spray insects within the walls of houses as one way of preventing malaria.
“So we are doing this in Nkhata-ay, Balaka and Mangochi and I think we have been in these districts for 3 years. We have seen a decline in a number of Malaria cases and also a decline in a number of Malaria deaths which is quite good and communities are very happy that they are seeing these benefits as far as the intervention is concerned,” said Mwale.
Every year, the second week of the month of November is designated as the Malaria Week for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). This year the SADC Malaria Day was on Monday 6th November, 2023.
The theme for this year’s commemoration for the SADC Malaria Week is: “Resilient health systems and communities key to malaria elimination and the slogan is: ‘timely access to Malaria services, everyone’s right’.”
