WINDHOEK – For the past four years, Namibia was hit hard by seasonal upsurges in malaria cases and by June 2018, over 29, 524 cases had been reported-ten times more than the 2012 cases, the Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Bernard Haufiku said on Friday.
The northern regions of Namibia are the most affected, with Kavango East and West regions accounting for at least 64 percent of deaths from the reported malaria cases, the minister said. Speaking at the launch of the 2018 Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS), Haufiku said the Zambezi and Ohangwena regions recorded at least 12 percent and 14 percent of deaths from the total malaria cases, respectively.
“The increase in malaria cases this year was also observed in neighbouring countries in Southern Africa such as Angola and Botswana,” said the health minister. Angola had four million malaria cases and 15 000 deaths in 2016, the minister stated. While this serves to highlight the regional nature of the disease, it also underscores the need to strengthen the country’s malaria control interventions at all levels, Haufiku remarked.
He also admitted that residual spraying programmes since 2014 did not achieve the required minimum protective coverage of 85 percent to maximally impact on malaria transmission and mitigate the emerging resistance to insecticides used in the country.
“The outbreaks registered in the country during the past four years have showed us that the gains we have made are fragile and that more needs to be done to reinforce our strategies and interventions towards the goal of malaria elimination.” He also encouraged the health workers not to be hopeless. “We have done well so far in our efforts to control the burden of malaria, preventing thousands of cases and saving lives over the past years. This must encourage us to move forward with determination and to better coordinate interventions utilising available resources to augment the momentum,” Haufiku added.
He also highlighted that the Ministry of Health and Social Services conducts indoor residual spraying as the main malaria vector control strategy to reduce the malaria vector population in order to minimise its contact with people.
This year, indoor residual spraying will be implemented in eight of the country’s 14 regions. The campaign that starts today will last for three months. In total, 1 542 spray personnel have been trained to conduct indoor residual spraying, spray equipment maintenance and supervision techniques.
During this year’s indoor residual campaign, slightly over 1 million structures are targeted for spraying in the targeted regions, stated Dr Haufiku. “The spray campaign will be supervised throughout by teams from national and regional levels.”