|
|
Zimbabwe: Join Hands in Fighting Malaria
 |
 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Herald (Harare)
10 March 2008
Posted to the web 10 March 2008
Harare
Despite the advent of the HIV virus, malaria remains the biggest potential killer in Africa; only modern prevention methods and the discovery of a range of curative drugs hold the horror at bay.
Zimbabwe has built malaria prevention around the spraying of huts, to kill the malaria-carrying mosquitoes as they alight on the inner walls. After trying alternatives for a few years, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare has returned to DDT, with growing international approval, since in this case a long half-life insecticide is required and environmental damage can be negligible so long as careful procedures are followed.
The heavy rains delayed the spray teams, but they are now out, hitting the mosquitoes that were breeding in just about every pool during those heavy rains. Hopefully, the teams will be in time. A second programme intends to ensure that everyone sleeps under a mosquito net. The first target, and fulfilment is in sight, is for every pregnant woman and every child to have a treated net. The second target is for everyone to have one.
This programme needs to be pushed. Spraying helps, having a new drug that kills resistant malaria helps. But in the end stopping people being bitten in the first place is the obvious answer. Complacency, and city dwellers outside Mutare and Masvingo tend to be very complacent, cannot be tolerated. All it needs is one mild winter, and with global warming such a winter cannot be far away, and the anopheles mosquito will be everywhere in Zimbabwe. Already the odd case of malaria has been contracted in the high central plateau around Harare, as a drifting mosquito of the right species manages to get blown to the city. Equipping the population with nets is not impossible. A far more difficult task, making sure everyone had proper sanitation, took just a decade to fulfil as Blair toilets became the norm throughout rural Zimbabwe.
|
A campaign is now needed to ensure that everyone has a net, with those able to afford them buying their own and subsidies for those unable to carry the cost. We believe that the main problem for most people is not the cost, but the need for everyone to take the threat urgently and get a net.
The campaign being waged by the health ministry needs to be intensified, which means others with the required resources must join in. Modest funding will ensure that the required subsidies are available for the poor, but that money can also be found if everyone joins in. Malaria is a killer disease. But it can be beaten with modest cost and just a little effort by every family in Zimbabwe.
The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare has done a first-class job. Now those with the health of Zimbabwe at heart need to join in.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
