As Sierra Leone joined the world yesterday to commemorate World Malaria Day, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation launched its 2016 National Malaria Indicator Survey.
To mark the day, people from all walks of life including school children converged at the St. Anthony’s Parish along Syke Street in Freetown to witness the event and mark the way forward to end malaria by 2030.
The Malaria Indicator Survey, conducted every two years, is meant to gauge progress on outcomes and impact by measuring status of key malaria indicators.
Under the leadership of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and a technical working group, Catholic Relief Services a key partner in health managed the implementation together with other institutions of a malaria survey in June-August 2016.
Key findings of the survey are in the full report but on malaria prevention it was discovered that more than 60% of households in Sierra Leone own at least one insecticide-treated net (ITN) and almost 16% of households have at least one ITN for every two people who stayed in the house the night before the survey.
Also, in households owning at least one ITN, 63% of the household populations, 71% are children under five, and 75% of pregnant women slept under an ITN the previous night.
The survey showed 71% of pregnant women received at least two doses and 31% received at least three doses,of intermittent preventive treatment for prevention of malaria in pregnancy.
Launching the 2016 MIS report, Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation, Madina Rahman stated that since 2000 malaria has cost Sub-Saharan Africa $300 million USD each year for case management alone.
She said malaria can account for up to 40% of public health spending in the most endemic countries, and the costs of treatment trap families in a cycle of illness, suffering and poverty.
This year’s theme, “End Malaria for Good”, is a call of desperation for more support and investment in the collective fight against the disease that has plagued the world and the African continent.
Rahman added that between 2010 and 2015, malaria incidence rates fell by 21% globally and by 31% in Africa Region, and during the same period, malaria mortality rates fell by an estimated 29% globally and by 31% in Africa.
“Sierra Leone over the past years has achieved success in malaria control initiatives with prevalence rate dropping from 68% in 1978 to 40% in 2016 “.
She furthered that reported deaths due to malaria in children below five in various communities and health facilities is decreasing. According to data from the health management information system, malaria death and illness rates are no longer comparable to what the situation was ten years ago.
Rahman maintained that all the achievements made so far in the fight against malaria is as a result of Government’s commitment and donor support including public/private partnerships with non-health sector institutions.
Representing the UN family, Dr. Alexander Chimbaru explained that the idea of world malaria day is to highlight the devastating effect of malaria and continue to seek solutions to end the disease.
He said despite the challenges the good news is that a vaccine has been developed, which will be available in the beginning of 2018.
Dr. Chimbaru noted that malaria reduction is a collective effort and if progress has been made since 2010 hopefully by 2030 malaria will be no more.
Managing Director, Total Sierra Leone, Rose Nkada stated that her organization values the partnership with the NMCP in her effort to tackle the malaria challenge.
She said Total’s sustainable development initiative every year captures the fight against malaria as a top priority and this will continue in Sierra Leone from all fronts.
The Chairman Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) for Global Fund said the main role as CCM is to raise funds and oversee the use of the fund to fight malaria, TB and HIV in an effort to improve health systems in the country.
He disclosed that Global Fund approved over $90 million USD to fight all three diseases from January 2018 to December 2021, which by then will have seen great achievements.
Statements were also made by representatives from the Freetown City Council, CRS, and civil society stressing the need for attitude change to always keep the environment clean.
By Ade Campbell
Wednesday April 26, 2017