adminSamuel Kadungure Senior Health Reporter
REGARDLESS of comprehensive health interventions by Government and its partners aimed at eliminating malaria and promote healthy communities and families – malaria remains a serious challenge for Manicaland.
Manicaland continues recording high cases of malaria prevalence, transmission and mortality at a time the malaria burden in other provinces had decreased significantly over the past two years.
Statistics from Manicaland depict spiralling trend, with the killer disease leaving a trail of destruction as victims, especially in rural areas succumbing to its venom – while traditionally prone-malaria areas such as Victoria Falls, Hwange, Binga, Mutoko, Chiredzi, Beitbridge, Kariba and Mudzi, among others have done so well that they are in the elimination stage.
In 2014, the province recorded 202 900 cases of malaria out of a national malaria burden of 480 490 (42 percent).
The province recorded 24 percent mortality with 154 out of the 594 deaths recorded nationally. As at June 8, 2015, the province recorded 81 200 cases of malaria and 107 deaths, the highest nationally.
Six of its districts namely Chipinge (21 800), Nyanga (18 827), Makoni (13 501), Mutasa, Mutare, Chimanimani are in the top 20 of malaria burden areas.
“The highest malaria incidence used to be in the Matabeleland provinces, particularly Binga and Beight Bridge, followed by Mashonaland provinces especially in Mashonaland East which shares the border with Mozambique.
“The latest statistics shows that the Matebeleland districts have done so well and are working towards elimination malaria and the highest incidence is now in Manicaland,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.
He said Zimbabwe was part of the E8, a group of eight African countries working toward to eliminate malaria.
Four members of the group –South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland and Botswana are already at an advanced stage, while Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Angola lag behind.
“We all need to put our efforts together and combat malaria. We cannot continue having malaria killing our people,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.
The re-emergence of high incidence of malaria in Manicaland has been attributed to its proximity and sharing of a long border with Mozambique which is ranked as a high transmission country.
Five of its districts border Mozambique.
“The border with Mozambique is very long, stretching for more that 1000km. Our communities along the border live side by side, it is not very separable, so whatever we do, we must fight together with Mozambique along the border,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care has adopted three types of malarial insecticides, including the banned dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) which was developed as the first of the modern synthetic insecticides in the 1940s.
It was initially used with great effect to combat malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human diseases but later banned to its crops and environmental effect.
“DDT is extremely effective and lasts for 12 months on the walls, but we do not use it in areas where tobacco is grown or any vegetation that we think will be destroyed. In Manicaland we used pyrethroids insecticide which was being resisted by a new breed of mosquito – anopheles fenestus – which is suspected to have originated from Mozambique. Next year, we are going to use organophosphates,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.
He said his ministry was also distributing free or subsidised mosquito nets.
In 2000, Zimbabwe signed the Abuja Declaration, which targeted to reduce malaria cases by 50 percent by 2010, and by 75 percent by 2015.
In 2009, the country achieved coverage of 74 percent – am arm’s length of the World Health Organisation (WHO) target of 85 percent.
Provincial Medical Director, Dr Patron Mafaune, said most deaths occur among children and pregnant women.
The statistics could have been under reported given the high concentration of apostolic sects, who on religious grounds do use modern medicine for treatment of malaria.
Dr Mafaune attributed high cases of malaria in Chipinge to resistance.
“There was a lot of resistance to the programme in Chipinge. The preventative anti-malaria residual spraying interventions were compromised.
“In Makoni we sprayed only eight wards which we had deemed prone-malaria, but we have since discovered that there were re-emergency of the disease in the other 32 rural wards the we had left out, so this year we are going to roll out the spraying programme in the entire district,” said Dr Mafaune.
Online Reporter