Mozambique: One dead and students reportedly kidnapped in Metuge - Lusa
(in file CoM)
Mozambique needs USD 85 million (EUR 73 million) annually to fund its fight against malaria, an amount the state cannot source in its entirety unaided.
“The malaria programme does not have the resources it needs,” President Filipe Nyusi said at the National Malaria Forum in Maputo yesterday. For the Mozambican president, malaria, with a 40 percent prevalence in children under five, represents a public health challenge demanding the involvement of all in the fight against the disease.
The provinces of Zambézia and Nampula are the worst affected, with the prevalence rate rising by 5 percent in recent years.
“There is a need to revitalize and rethink strategies to combat the disease,” the Mozambican head of state added. “Of the poorest households, disease prevalence rate reaches 60 percent, clearly demonstrating the link between malaria and poverty.”
World Health Organization representative in Mozambique, Djamila Khady Cabral, also says the fight against malaria must be collective, and that Mozambique has shown great energy in trying to eradicate the disease.
“Overcoming malaria is possible, but it will require greater efforts on the part of all of us, all health actors, the health sector, other sectors, civil society, the private sector and communities,” Cabral said.
Along with Angola, Mozambique is among the eight countries with the highest number of malaria deaths in the world, accounting for 7 percent of the global burden of the disease, according to the World Health Organization. Official figures reveal that the disease accounts for 29 percent of the deaths in the country’s health units.
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