By Saio Marrah
The Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation, Princess Dugba, says Koinadugu District has the highest malaria prevalence of 35.1% among children between the age of 6 months to 59 months.
Ms Dugba was quoting the 2021 Sierra Leone Malaria Indicator Survey (SMIS) report, which placed Western Area Urban District as the lowest with 7.5%.
She said this at her keynote address at the Commemoration of the 16th World Malaria Day held at the Wilberforce Barracks Hockey Pitch in Freetown on Tuesday 25th April 2023.
The International theme for this year’s commemoration was “Time to deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement,” while the locally adopted theme was “Sleep insai maskita tent oltem”
The survey however indicated that Sierra Leone has made significant progress in malaria prevention and control. It shows that the National Malaria prevalence among children 6 to 59 months reduced from 40% in 2016 to 22% in 2021.
In terms of malaria prevention among pregnant women and infants using sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT), the coverage for the third dose (IPTp3) increased from 31% in 2016 to 52% in 2021 and 60% of children less than three years were covered with SP- IPT.
Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) were owned by 61% of households, 87% of pregnant women, and 76% of children less than five years slept inside an ITN the night before the survey.
The SLMIS report indicated 91% of children under five have access to life-saving antimalarial drugs.
The minister also disclosed that the first malaria vaccine has been approved and will be introduced in the country in 2024.
The deputy minister also noted that the vision of the National Malaria Elimination Strategic Plan from 2020 to 2025 is to accelerate the implementation of malaria control intervention towards a malaria-free Sierra Leone.
She said in the fight against malaria, there is no single tool available today that will solve the problem of the disease. In this regard, she said, “WHO is calling for investments and innovation that bring new vector control approaches, diagnostic, antimalarial medicine, and other tools to speed up the pace of progress against malaria.”
As a country, she said there is a need to harness innovative and sustainable methods to reduce the malaria burden and save lives.
The Acting Programme Manager of National Malaria Control, Dr. Denis H. Marke, said World Malaria Day is an occasion to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment to malaria prevention and control.
Malaria is a preventable disease that continues to have a devastating impact on the health and livelihood of people around the world with pregnant women and children under five years of age particularly vulnerable.
The Representative of the WHO, Dr. Thomson Igbu, said the commemoration was for all to take stock of malaria’s devastating impact on people’s lives and economic development in the African region.
After highlighting the many strides taken by WHO, he said more than 1.6 billion cases and 11 million malaria deaths were averted in the WHO African Region from 2000 to 2021.
He listed eight African Countries - Cape Verde, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, Mauritania, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, which he said are on track to meet the 2025 Global Technical Strategy target.
While applauding the government of Sierra Leone and its partners for the achievement so far, he said “We are greatly concerned that malaria deaths remain unacceptably high, and cases have continued to increase since 2015.”
According to him, WHO African Region alone accounted in 2021 for an estimated 234 million malaria cases and 593,000 deaths, thus bearing the heaviest burden of over 95% of cases and 96% of deaths globally.
He said inequalities affect the most vulnerable-young children and women, whereas about 80% of malaria cases and deaths occur in children under five.
To reverse these trends and accelerate progress, he said “We must rethink and revitalize our strategies by investing, innovating and implementing smarty. “
The WHO representative, therefore, called on the government to keep malaria high on its agendas as they allocate resources to health.
World Malaria Day was initiated in May 2007 by the 60th session of the World Health Assembly.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (03/05/23)
