Malaria incidences drop, Malawi health minister tells Parliament
Malawi Malaria cases in the country have drastically dropped, Minister of Health Jean Kalirani on Thursday told Malawi Parliament during her ministerial statement.
“Despite the disease continuing to be a significant public health challenge for Malawi and accounting for 22 percent of all in-patient deaths in the 2013/14 fiscal year, the incidences of malaria have gone down from 43 percent in 2010 to 33 percent in 2014.,” said Kalirani.
Kalirani attributed this to the efficient distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets across the country.
“This has been achieved through distribution of 1.56 million insecticide-treated [ITNs] mosquito nets annually.”
She said government has realised the importance of sleeping under treated nets and efforts are continuing to be undertaken.
“ Currently, we are conducting indoor residual spraying in selected districts in Malawi, especially along the lakeshore where malaria prevalence is high. So far, over 80 percent of the houses have been reached.”
The percentage of pregnant women using nets has increased from 15 percent in 2004 to 66 percent in 2014 and over 66 percent of the under-five children are also sleeping under the treated nets, according to Kalirani.
Malaria is killing and maiming children. It can and must be eradicated. Destroying mosquitoes by spraying homes and breeding places is the most effective we. Did we not learn that prevention is better than cure? But look rich countries that own pharmaceuticals won’t let this happen because they want a market for malaria drugs, mosquito nets and test kits. This is what our CSOs should also be prioritizing. Illness from malaria reduces productivity of the workforce in all sectors. It also increases our healthcare budget and bills. We don’t win this battle with just mosquito net. That’s a raw deal.
I am really the eye witness. I knew some crooked minister would attribute the drop to sleeping under a mosquito net. That’s not the reason Madam Learned Doctor Minister of Health, its due to the adherence of your myriad Medical Assistants, Clinical Technicians,Nurses, Midwives, Laboratory Personnel and Doctors to the stoppage of treating or diagnosing Malaria symptomatically but only with a Positive Rapid Malaria Diagnostic Tests or a Positive Blood Firm for Malaria parasites. This is the reason and only reason. If the test kits will be out of stock!! Get ready for the rise again because your health personnel… Read more »
why is She talking of positives only?Talk of delayd salary and delayd posting.
Well done! Ministry of health for commendable work.
Keep it up and make you win the fight.
Its so nice to realise the dropping of the incidences but plz plan to expand irs bcoz is of more significant.
Thanks, however watch out for drug resistant malaria on the rise.
amazing how efficient the government is. they have finally realized that sleeping under a net is a good idea.wow that must have taken some brain power. how many years of research was required and money spent to figure out out?