Malaria Under Control After Ditladi Records One Death
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Tuesday October 19, 2021 06:00
When responding to an enquiry from The Monitor on behalf of the DHMT, the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoH) chief public relations officer, Dr Christopher Nyanga said that since the beginning of September the village has recorded six cases of Malaria, including one death.
He added that all those who tested positive came from Lekomoto ward and do not have a history of travelling. The DHMT also conducted contact tracing and active cases surveillance to determine the extent of the outbreak.
“A total of 260 people were tested for Malaria in Lekomoto ward. Out of the 260, three were positive,” Nyanga said.
The ministry spokesperson said that advocacy, communication and social mobilisation activities were strengthened to alert the community on the disease outbreak, with a view of curtailing the spread. Reactive Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) was conducted on more than 1,305 rooms in the area, according to Nyanga, who emphasised that the Malaria situation in the area is now under control.
The cases (Malaria) at Ditladi shocked many because the village is not classified as a Malaria endemic area.
Nyanga noted that the probable drivers of transmission identified in the village include minimal knowledge of Malaria symptoms and late healthcare-seeking behaviour by some of the residents.
Mushrooming of gardens in the village might be the other Malaria transmission driver according to Nyanga.
“In order to help determine the drivers of transmission and the origin of the cases in Ditladi, the Greater Francistown DHMT through the entomology team responded to the outbreak by carrying out entomological investigations on September 29,” he said.