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Malaria Reduction Should Lead To Elimination-Experts

Some health experts have hailed revelations by the National Malaria Control Programme that the country has reduced malaria by 60 percent in the first half of 2022, as compared to the same period last year.

One of them Sandra Mapemba has stressed on the need to maintain programs that have contributed to the reduction, but also to keep up with emerging interventions to eliminate it.

The organization has announced Malawi has registered a 3 million decrease in malaria cases between January and June this year, compared to 7 million cases in 2021.

Commenting on the development, a health expert Sandra Mapemba has told us this is a welcome development, and has since appealed for accelerated interventions and community awareness, further hinting on the need to integrate technologies that can contribute to its elimination.

“This is a welcome development. Actually, there has been a lot of investments in the health sector, and this is the fruit of that kind of investment. You know, we have to keep up with and integrate emerging interventions that can contribute to eliminating malaria”, said Mapemba.

She adds, “I think this can be attributed to concerted efforts, the education, the nets distribution to specific groups and awareness to use the nets correctly reduced misconceptions, and led to the reduced malaria cases. I think first of all we need to maintain the programs that we have been using, but also incorporate the new technologies.”

A health rights activist Dorothy Ngoma, who is also presidential advisor on safe motherhood, says it is crucial to employ every possible means to save the lives of mothers and newborns that die of the disease.

Ngoma says if pregnant women for example suffer from malaria and are not given the anti-malaria drugs, chances are high they may have pre-mature births or abortions, and such losses. If women give birth to premature babies, it’s not easy to support those babies. It also automatically increases neonatal deaths”, she said.

Ngoma is hoping that the country gets to a point where numbers of premature deliveries, abortions and deaths are reduced, and across the board, malaria is a disease that should be taken seriously because it causes much pain, and people ca not be able to do productive activities, at the same time government uses a lot of money towards procurements of products and services to deal with the disease.

The National Malaria Control Program has attributed the development to various interventions, including distribution of mosquito nets across the country, intensified awareness and surveillance.

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Last modified on Saturday, 24/09/2022

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