Minister of Health Dr Alpha Wurie yesterday 13th August 2020 at his Youyi Building office said malaria deaths could double if the fight against coronavirus comes at the expense of anti-malaria efforts.
The Minister said everyone in Sierra Leone is affected by malaria, which is why they have engaged a wide range of stakeholders from all areas of society: members of parliament, mayors, religious leaders, paramount chiefs, the media, local councils, health and government officials, civil society organisations, traders, celebrities, footballers, models, actors, musicians and comedians, using their voices and influence against the disease.
“These leaders are essential for ensuring people know how to stay safe and to seek diagnosis and treatment if experiencing a fever. We must pay great attention to this deadly disease and the effort we are putting in fighting COVID should be the same to save lives from malaria.” Dr Wurie said their commitment to end malaria is something they are proud of in Sierra Leone. However, malaria does not respect borders as mosquitoes are not bounded by country limits.
“That is why we call on neighbouring African countries to learn from our experience and continue to scale up malaria programs despite the challenges of COVID-19. Naturally, we have had successes and failures. However, collaboration and knowledge sharing continue to be the best way of ensuring that only the successes are repeated. As we say in Krio, ‘malaria e don wan dae na mi han’.”
He said 2020 marks the beginning of a new decade, one in which they must strive to build stronger and more resilient health systems, and to mobilise to end public health crises such as malaria. In 2014, Sierra Leone, along with Liberia and Guinea battled a devastating Ebola outbreak. That deadly challenge taught them a lot: from the importance of tackling misinformation to ensuring rapid testing and treatment. Sierra Leone alone lost close to 4,000 lives to the virus.
“That was a tragedy for our nation. People often forget, however, that during this difficult time, we lost even more lives to malaria. In Sierra Leone, this mosquito-borne disease has been a long-standing foe, with 1.78 million malaria cases confirmed in 2018.” Dr Wurie reiterated that many African countries similarly struggle with malaria, which is why all 55 heads of state of the African Union launched the continent-wide ‘Zero Malaria Starts with Me’ campaign in July 2018.
Since then, the pan-African movement that calls for all citizens to take ownership of the fight to end malaria has gone from strength to strength: 15 countries have now launched the campaign nationally, including Sierra Leone in 2019. “At the same time, however, our progress against malaria is under threat today. COVID-19 is taking hold of public health efforts to the extent that malaria deaths are set to double in 2020, according to recent World Health Organisation modeling.” The Minister of Health stressed that they cannot let the fight against COVID-19 come at the detriment of their mission to end malaria. It is crucial that countries across Africa continue to scale up their malaria programs and ensure the disease remains a priority, he said, adding malaria continues to claim the lives of over 400,000 people each year globally.
“Since March 2020, Sierra Leone has been fighting to control the spread of COVID-19. However, we have continued to provide essential malaria services. We decided to push forward with our planned mass distribution of 4.6 million long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs), enough that every single Sierra Leonean can sleep under a bed net every night, all year round. We had to act quickly as the rainy season, the period of peak malaria transmission, was not going to wait for us.” He said LLINs are tried and tested interventions, proving to be the most cost-effective tools against malaria. The development and scaled up distribution of these nets over the last two decades are responsible for approximately 68% of the prevented malaria cases in Africa. They are not just one element of a successful malaria control program, but also an important one that empowers communities to protect themselves against mosquitoes. MJB/14/08/2020
By Mohamed J. Bah