WHO to step up malaria fight in Mozambique, world’s 3rd most affected country, with foothold in government ministries

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WHO to step up malaria fight in Mozambique, world’s 3rd most affected country, with foothold in government ministries

7:59 CAT | 19 Nov 2018

Matshidiso Moeti was speaking at the presentation in Maputo of the WHO’s annual report on malaria, which shows that, while the number of deaths from malaria worldwide is falling, the number of cases of the disease has risen slightly since 2015 due to lack of Investment. Photo: Lusa

The World Health Organisation on Monday pledged to step up its fight against malaria in the 11 other most affected countries, including Mozambique, by placing officials in the government offices where priorities are set.

WHO aims to join forces with partners in each country “to help health ministers to show … finance” ministers, who decide state budgets, that investing in the fight against malaria “is a good investment in terms of its return, where the health of the population and the country’s development goes, “said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.

Moeti was speaking at the presentation in Maputo of the WHO’s annual report on malaria, which shows that, while the number of deaths from malaria worldwide is falling, the number of cases of the disease has risen slightly since 2015 due to lack of Investment.

Funds earmarked in the affected countries to combat malaria “stagnated and [are] not proportional to the contribution of donors, namely the US and the Global Fund.”

If there are improvements in the 11 countries that record 70% of cases, “we shall have progress at the global level,” said Kasete Admasu, executive director of the RBM Partnership, which brings together hundreds of organisations worldwide in the fight against malaria.

Mozambique is the world’s third most affected country

“We are calling on the political leaders of Mozambique and other highly affected countries to take the lead in the fight against malaria and direct the agenda in the coming years,” Moeti said, outlining the aggressive approach at the local level that the WHO has sketched out for the coming years.

Mozambique is the world’s third most affected country by malaria, according to the WHO report, and is to be among the targets of the new strategy to combat the disease.

The other countries in this group are India and nine in Africa: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania.

“What we hope is that political is so clear that it reaches right down to the people and results in a reduction in malaria cases,” Admasu said.

More than 90% of the 219 million malaria cases recorded in 2017 and of the 435,000 deaths were in Africa, with most being children under the age of five.

Source: Lusa