Five die from Malaria
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday March 10, 2014 17:03
The recent heavy rains have contributed to the high number of cases. By the end of February 2014, the ministry had recorded 425 cases since the malaria transmission season started in October 2013, principal public relations officer, Doreen Motshegwa said.
“Okavango District is the most affected contributing to 63 percent of the reported malaria cases. The other districts experiencing the outbreak are Chobe, Bobirwa, Mahalapye, Palapye, and Ngami. Other districts have so far reported less than five cases,” she said.
She said the most affected age group is five and 20 years. Implementation of Malaria Vector Control interventions form a major component of the malaria elimination strategy, therefore prior to the malaria transmission season every year the MOH undertakes the Indoor Residual House Spraying (IRS) exercise from October to December in targeted malaria districts, Motshwegwa said.
She said the intervention protects the communities by killing the adult mosquitoes that would come into their houses. As a complimentary strategy to the IRS, Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs) were distributed during mass distribution campaigns in 2009 and 2013 in Okavango.
“The 2013 exercise was meant to replace those lost, damaged or expired from those distributed in 2009. LLINs expire after three to five years and the MoH policy is to replace them after every three years. In Ngami, Chobe, parts of Tutume, Boteti and Bobirwa LLINs were distributed in 2010 and a follow-up distribution will be undertaken this year in August to replace the nets distributed in 2010,” she said.
Motshegwa further pointed out that community mobilisation activities have been intensified to heighten awareness on malaria disease; how the disease presents itself when an individual is infected; early treatment seeking behaviour and most importantly use of personal protection e.g. sleeping under insecticide-treated mosquito nets especially for those residing in malaria endemic districts. She said Malaria Case Based Surveillance is also undertaken to investigate each reported malaria case. Contact tracing is also undertaken by testing people living with and those neighbouring the identified case. “Some of the confirmed cases were picked from asymptomatic individuals during such an exercise and we urge people to cooperate with health officials, as it will help prevent transmission to others,” she said.
The ministry said in areas where investigations by the health teams indicate evidence of ongoing local transmission, reactive Indoor Residual Spraying in undertaken targeting the infected mosquitoes and larviciding is done if mosquito larvae are found in stagnant water pools. MoH is also conducting larviciding in Boteti, Tutume and Bobirwa during winter to kill mosquito larvae that will cause transmission at the beginning of the transmission in October.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite. People with malaria often experience fever, chills, and flu-like illness. Left untreated, they may develop severe complications and die. In 2010 an estimated 219 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and 660,000 people died, most (91 percent) in the African Region