adminTakunda Maodza Manicaland Bureau Chief
THE City of Mutare, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, will tomorrow roll out an indoor spraying programme using residual insecticides to curb and prevent malaria.
The city wants to eliminate malaria and ensure Mutare is declared a malaria-free zone. 0eeding. Spraying campaigns are required to ensure mosquitoes do not breed.
Last year, the city recorded 1 177 malaria cases up from 1 038 cases in 2018. Already this year, Mutare has recorded 194 cases.
The indoor anti-malaria spraying programme will cover all high density suburbs in the city and will end on February 6.
Mutare City Council spokesperson Mr Spren Mutiwi said in an interview with The Herald yesterday: “We are rolling out the indoor residual spraying programme to curb and prevent malaria.
“We are working in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Care and we want to eliminate malaria and ensure Mutare regains its non-malaria zone status,” he said.
“As a local authority, we appeal to all stakeholders to work together in preventing malaria and ensure that we do not contribute to its outbreak by creating breeding spaces. We want to ensure that the disease is controlled and does not spread to other suburbs that have not recorded any cases,” added Mr Mutiwi.
He said the city was ready to fight malaria.
“Since the beginning of the year we have recorded 194 malaria cases and we are prepared to fight malaria and reduce the cases.
Mutare used to be a non-malaria zone around 2008.
“There has been a shift now.
“We are a malaria zone. Our focus is to claim our status,” said Mr Mutiwi.
Last year malaria killed nine people in the city and 14 in 2018.
“The number of deaths is declining and we are scaling up prevention measures and ensuring that the same trend is registered in terms of preventive measures,” said Mr Mutiwi.
Online Reporter