Botswana Experiences Malaria Reduction

By Thato Chwaane
Staff Writer | Monday April 30, 2007 00:00

Disclosing this at the weekend, National Malaria Programme Co-coordinator, Tjantilili Mosweunyane said  6, 580 malaria cases were reported by this month, showing a reduction from the previous year's 9, 242 reported cases by the end of March.

She said districts had reported the cases from malarial zones and that none of the districts in the southern part of the country was affected, as in the previous year.
Recently, it was reported that an advanced malaria vaccine could be available by 2012. The vaccine is still in the second phase of trials. In a trial performed on young children in Mozambique it showed that it could reduce severe malaria by 49 percent.

Mosweunyane said that they were aware of the malaria vaccine trials currently ongoing. She said once they are concluded the ministry would rely on the World Health Organisation's (WHO) guidance on how to proceed.

In her radio address last week on Africa Malaria Day, the Minister of Health, Sheila Tlou, said there had been three deaths, as compared to 40 in the previous year. She said the reduction in the number of malaria cases and deaths was due to the dry spell that has befallen the country this season, as well as a successful implementation of malaria control interventions.

Malaria related illness and mortality cost Africa's economy $12 billion (about P24 billion) yearly.

Tlou said everyone infected with malaria should receive life-saving anti-malarial drugs timely and those residing in malaria endemic areas, especially children under five and pregnant women, should sleep under an Insecticide-Treated Net (ITN) during malaria transmission periods. All houses in such zones should be sprayed with insecticides.
This years' theme is: 'Free Africa from Malaria Now - Roll Back Malaria'.