Chronicle Editor
Yoliswa Dube-Moyo, Mat South Bureau Chief
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care is spearheading malaria prevention and control measures to reduce the burden of the disease as the malaria season peaks.
The national malaria control programme transmission season starts from November with a peak going from March through to May. As a way of preventing malaria, the ministry uses World Health Organisation recommended strategies that include spraying of houses in high transmission districts and distribution of mosquito nets in areas of medium to low transmission free of charge. National malaria control programme social and behaviour change communication officer Ms Fortunate Manjoro said malaria is curable if people access treatment early.
“Right now, we’re at the peak of the malaria transmission period. We encourage communities to access treatment within 24 hours of sickness so that they’re cured and they’re not a source of infection in the community.
People should know the causes of malaria and the signs and symptoms that include a high temperature, headache, general body pains, joint pains, feeling hot and cold spells or shivering and sweating, loss of appetite, vomiting and in some instances diarrhoea.
Once someone who lives in a malaria transmission area experiences these symptoms, they should access treatment early so that they’re treated. Malaria is curable but if people don’t get treatment, then the disease progresses to severe disease which may lead to death,” said Ms Manjoro.
She said the distribution of mosquito nets starts before the transmission peak season between June and July.
“We have been spraying since September but this time around due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we started a bit late.
We have surveillance systems in place where we make sure that all the cases are monitored in case of outbreaks so that we can quickly control them. For example, if we have sprayed houses in a particular area and then there’s an outbreak, it means we have to quickly move in and give people nets to prevent malaria,” said Ms Manjoro.
She said due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, village health workers treated more people than health facilities.
“A total of 54 percent of all our cases were treated by our village health workers because the communities were not moving around. If someone fell sick, they could easily access treatment through the village health worker.
Village health workers are actually well stocked with the commodities to treat malaria so that people don’t have to travel long distances to access treatment,” said Ms Manjoro.
“Like I said, you need to access treatment within 24 hours so if you’re to travel long distances, some people may not have money and they might lose time while trying to access treatment and end up with severe malaria.
Village health workers also raise community awareness on malaria and encourage people to support the prevention programme and use their nets. Village health workers are trained to test for malaria and then treat only positive cases. If they find severe malaria, they don’t treat it, they refer.”
In Matabeleland region, she said, the districts that are prone to malaria are Hwange and Binga while Beitbridge is a low transmission district.
“Our prevention strategies are deployed to these districts for free so the communities have no reason not to access them.
“We however, still have a challenge with people who are highly mobile like the artisanal miners, people who work at irrigation schemes and cross-border traders who move in and out of different transmission zones,” said Ms Manjoro.
“Pregnant women, children under five-years-old and people who live with chronic conditions are at high risk of contracting malaria and we encourage everyone to ensure that they’re prioritised for nets and other prevention measures.” — @Yolisswa
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