MALARIA prevalence has declined from 18.1 per cent in 2008 to 8.1 per cent in 2022, according to a new report by the Ifakara Health Institute.
Manager of the National Malaria Controll Programme (NCMP), Dr Lazaro Samwel, presented the report when briefing on the development on fight against malaria during the Malaria Forum 2023 in Dar es Salaam.
According to Dr Samwel, the decrease was a result of ensuring that all people in Tanzania have equitable access to sustainable, quality,effective, safe and affordable malaria preventative and curative services through efficient collaborative partnership and community ownership.
"Number of confirmed malaria cases declined by 55 per cent from 7.7 million in 2015 to 3.5 million in 2022. And also, the malaria incidence per 1000 population reduced by almost 64 per cent from 162 in 2015 to 58 per cent in 2022. In the hospital the reports show malaria decreased by 66 per cent from 529,146 cases in 2015 to 178,549 in 2022.
"This year we have revived the Malaria Forums with support from the Swiss Embassy in Tanzania because we strongly believe this platform play a pivotal role in bringing together stakeholders in the fight against malaria to improve health and wellbeing of people in Tanzania and beyond," he said.
Dr Samwel thanked the ministries of health of Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar for supporting Ifakara Health Institute in preparing this year's forum.
Assistant Programme Manager to end Malaria in Zanzibar, Ms Safia Mohammed Ali, said the aim of the one-day meeting was to bring together malaria control stakeholders in the country from both the Mainland and Zanzibar to discuss on the progress made on various activities in malaria control.
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"Over the past two decades, the Islands of Zanzibar have made dramatic progress in reducing malaria transmission...driving the parasite prevalence down from historic levels of more than 20 per cent in 2002 to consistently less than 1 per cent in the last decade. As a result of this success, the Government of Zanzibar is now focusing on a malaria elimination goal to accelerate elimination of local transmission and prevent re-introduction," she said.
She added: "Zanzibar has a population of 1,889,773 National Population and Housing Census Report 2022. The last two malaria indicators surveys (MIS) of 2017 and 2022 (TDHS) reported zero prevalence in the sampled children. Through routine surveillance malaria incidence has declined from 8.5 in 2020 to 2.4 in 2022."
Moreover, malaria deaths have continued to decline from 20 deaths in 2020 to 4 deaths in 2022. There was no reported death among pregnant women and under five from 2019 - 2022.
Malaria transmission in Zanzibar is heterogeneous in specific boundaries. Zanzibar is constituted with 11 districts and 388 the lowest administrative boundary with a population of less than 3,000 over the past three years.
