Lusaka — HEALTH Minister Kapembwa Simbao has said Zambia is advancing towards the malaria-free status after reducing the prevalence rate to an average of 35 cases in every 1,000 people.

Mr Simbao said in Lusaka yesterday that the rate of death emanating from the disease had been reduced by 66 per cent as per World Health Organisation (WHO) findings and that was partly attributable to the use of coartem.

He said this during a Press briefing on the use of coartem as first-line treatment of malaria attended by journalists, some from Europe, who are in the country under the sponsorship of Novartis Malaria Initiative, the manufacturers of coartem.

He said although international records showed that Zambia had not yet attained the disease elimination stage, in had been in actual fact achieved and soon the country would be able to reach the disease-free scenario.

Mr Simbao said Zambia recorded success through the multifaceted approach which included the provision of more than five million treated anti-mosquito nets, the indoor residual spraying and the use of coartem following the high failure rate of chloroquine.

Malaria is a tropical disease caused by parasites of the plasmodium species and is transmitted from person to person through the bites of an infected female anopheles mosquito.

The symptoms include fever, headaches and other flu-like signs and if not treated, the disease in its most severe form leads to a coma or death.

Mr Simbao said unlike before 2003 when on average the country recorded about 340 cases of the disease in every group of 1,000 people, the situation had drastically changed and some health centres had no incidents of the disease for long periods.

He said the use of coartem had eliminated resistance, thereby reducing the recurrent cases for the disease which he said was a huge drawback on the national productivity.

When asked by a journalist to confirm if coartem was relatively expensive to procure, Mr Simbao said previously, it used to be but over the years Norvatis had drastically reduced the cost as African countries bought more of the drug.

Earlier, global access and marketing director - Novartis Malaria Initiatives, Hans Rietveld paid tribute to the Zambian leadership for its commitment towards the fight against the disease.

Mr Rietveld said Zambia was among the first African countries to adopt coartem as the front-line treatment in 2002 and the move had paid off.

He said Zambia's achievement was a demonstration that it was possible to significantly reduce malaria related morbidity and mortality.

He said coartem was a unique drug in the treatment of multi-drug resistant malaria and had a cure rate of more than 95 per cent.