HARARE - Malaria has killed 170 people across Zimbabwe since January, highlighting the country's lack of mechanisms to deal with common emergencies, a United Nations agency has said. (Pictured: Over 500,000 mosquito nets have been distributed throughout Zimbabwe)
According to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ monthly report, the situation has been compounded by the fact that one of the most effective drugs to combat malaria, Coartemether was licensed in Zimbabwe as a prescription drug, meaning people could not get it without approval from a nurse or doctor. “The Health cluster reported an outbreak of malaria in 16 of the countrys 62 districts, with 104, 683 cases and 170 deaths by 30 May 2010. Of these, at least 15% were of children under the age of five,” the report said.
“Deterioration of Zimbabwes health infrastructure continues to compromise the countrys capacity to avert and respond to emergencies, exposing vulnerable populations to epidemics. Currently, the country is battling cholera, measles, typhoid and malaria outbreaks.”
It added that most of the cases were reported from Mashonaland Central and East provinces. The outbreaks, which started in January 2010 and are confined to rural districts, have been attributed to late and prolonged rains, according to the report. Affected districts included Beitbridge, Bikita, Binga, Buhera, Bulilima, Chiredzi, Hurungwe, Hwedza, Kariba, Mazowe, Mbire, Mudzi, Murehwa, Mutoko, Mwenezi and Gokwe South.
The UN said while the indoor spraying coverage for the past spraying season was high at 86 per cent for both room and population coverage and over 500,000 mosquito nets had been distributed in the affected districts, various factors may have contributed to the outbreak. “The behaviour of community members such as sleeping outside sprayed structures, inconsistent use of nets in some areas and reduced population immunity because malaria seasons have been light in recent years, could be among the factors,” the report said.
The thresholds being used, calculated using health facility data only (excluding cases which were being treated by community-based workers), were an underestimate of the true malaria burden and have thus been easily exceeded, as all those cases which were previously being seen by the village health workers (VHW) are all turning to the health facilities. OCHA said Case Management training had taken place and was continuing in all provinces. Coartemether and Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) had been distributed while temporary treatment camps were set up in affected areas that are far from static health centres in some districts.
“In some cases larviciding is also being used to control the epidemics. Larviciding is the use of pesticides to control specific species of insects such as mosquito larvae. Environmental health technicians (EHT) and other health staff have been deployed in
affected areas.” Malaria is one of the latest in a long list of treatable diseases that have ravaged Zimbabwe, where an AIDS epidemic is killing at least 1 200 every week. Cholera killed 4 276, measles 517 and more recently, typhoid claimed eight lives.
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