Health minister advocates fight against malaria
The Minister of Health, Edwin Dikoloti said the country has made incredible progress towards eliminating malaria in the last decade.
Speaking at the World Malaria commemoration day at Letlhakeng village recently, Dikoloti said sustaining gains will take extra effort until the job is completed to eliminate malaria in the country.
He said they have managed to reduce the incidence of malaria from 28.7/1,000 population in 2001 to 0.30/1,000 population in 2022. “The theme for World Malaria Day 2022 is ‘Advance Equity. Build Resilience.
End Malaria.’; a theme that I find to be appropriate and fitting, as it seeks to not only encourage individuals, [but also] governments, institutions, and the private sector across the world to make a commitment to saving millions more lives.
It also helps communities and economies to thrive by ending malaria. “Commemoration of World Malaria Day provides an opportunity not only for the National Malaria Elimination Programme to highlight their successes in malaria control and unify efforts by various partners directed towards malaria elimination but also presents an opportunity to engage global leaders, civil society, the private sector, academic institutions, and the general public in our country,” he said.
In addition, the minister said this approach seeks to involve community leaders and other community structures to drive malaria elimination in their communities.
Dikoloti said this is in line with the Primary Health Care Revitalisation Strategy that aims to empower communities to assume responsibility for their health.
Furthermore, the Health minister said the Communities Acting Together to Eliminate Malaria (CATTEM) approach was initially implemented in the six endemic districts and is currently expanding to three more districts.
He continued: “I cannot overemphasise the need for the participation of every member of the community and society, to support efforts to eliminate malaria by opening their houses for indoor residual spraying exercise; seeking health care early and cleaning your environment to eliminate habitat for mosquitoes that transmit malaria.”
He said to attain the goals and aspirations of the Malaria Strategy Plan for 2018–2023, full engagement and active participation by all stakeholders, mainly the communities affected by malaria, remain critical. The minister said communities remain an untapped and most powerful resource in eliminating malaria.
He said this could help accelerate and sustain malaria elimination efforts in this country. He appealed to all Batswana to subscribe to the malaria elimination agenda and appreciate the benefits of malaria elimination in their communities.
He said as the global community works hard to reach zero malaria infections and deaths to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, he requested all people to give it a big push to reach set targets and achieve malaria elimination.