Malaria remains a threat in SADC

Lazarus Sauti

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes.

The disease is so deadly to the extent that in 2013, the World Health Organisation estimated that malaria caused 584 000 deaths, mostly in developing nations.

“Most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every minute from malaria,” noted the World Health Organisation (WHO) December 2014 Factsheet, adding that “young children in stable transmission areas who have not yet developed protective immunity against the most severe forms of the disease, travellers from non-endemic areas, as well as non-immune pregnant women are at great risk.”

Due to socio-economic challenges haunting countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), malaria remains a threat to millions of people living in the region. For instance, the disease is the third cause of illness and mortality in Zimbabwe, according to USAID-Zimbabwe Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI).

In Swaziland, according to communications specialist, Nick Lucchinelli, malaria remains a threat to about 286 000 people living in the country’s Lowveld and Lubombo Plateau regions.

Malaria Consortium Mozambique, an organisation committed to reducing the burden of malaria and other communicable diseases in Mozambique, notes that in their country, more children die of malaria than of any other disease; the disease accounts for over 57 per cent of all pediatric admissions, 44 per cent of all outpatient consultations and is responsible for 23 per cent of all deaths registered in hospitals.

“200 000 people continue to die from the disease in Southern Africa each year,” concurs Dr Kaka Mudambo, the Executive Director of Roll Back Malaria, a partnership of organisations for coordinated action against malaria.

The risk of malaria has multiplied in the region due to warming of temperatures.

A fresh report from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concurs and warns of considerable increase of malaria risk in countries such as Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique and other SADC member states, if global temperature rise is not reduced at a ceiling of 2 Degrees Celsius by 2080.

Further, as travelling fuels malaria, migrations specialists worry the disease is making a comeback in novel ways, hence exposing the region.

International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the leading inter-governmental organisation in the field of migration, believes the increase in cross border travel as well as rural and urban migrations within the regional bloc pose one most serious challenge to controlling and eliminating the disease.

“More and more people are moving in countries that managed to control and eliminate malaria…those countries are having cases we call imported malaria because people are moving from endemic communities to low endemic areas. It is one of the main challenges we are facing,” explains Erick Ventura, the Regional Migration and Health co-ordinator of the International Organisation for Migration.

Mudambo adds that when people move they may be moving with parasites; therefore, regional countries must collaborate if the region is to eliminate malaria and transform the lives of people.

South Africa is leading the way in this regard. The country’s Deputy Health minister, Joe Phaahla, says they are working with neighbouring countries Swaziland and Mozambique in terms of collaboration, “because as everybody knows mosquitoes do not need passports”.

“We are still focussing on 2015 and that is why in South Africa, the prevalence rates are insignificant and we need to go beyond our borders. In South Africa we still think we can make it for 2015 but it is going to be determined by that collaboration.”

Further, increasing investment in the fight against HIV, TB and malaria elimination should be a priority for governments together with generous and committed development partners if the regional bloc is to build a sustainable campaign against the three deadly ailments.

As a stop gap measure, countries must also utilise Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to track and detect malaria outbreaks.

WHO notes: “Tracking progress is a major challenge in malaria control… Therefore, stronger malaria surveillance systems are urgently needed to enable a timely and effective malaria response in endemic regions, to prevent outbreaks and resurgences, to track progress, and to hold governments and the global malaria community accountable.”

Malaria, without doubt, is the second biggest killer disease in Africa. As a result, governments through ministries of Health in the SADC region must act quickly to fully implement the Victoria Falls Declaration in which countries committed to reduce and increase Malaria control to hard-to-reach communities.

In July 2014, ministers of Health from Malaria-Endemic Countries met in Zimbabwe and adopted the Victoria Falls Declaration in which they obligated to eliminate and expand Malaria control to hard-to-reach communities. The Health ministers mainly from SADC countries recognised that Malaria continues to be an obstacle to economic progress.