SADC Malaria Day

Issued by Department of Health

Commemorated at Tshikondeni Primary School Sports Ground, Limpopo

3 November 2006

SADC health ministers decided in 2001 that it is important for all Departments to meet with the communities and officials on SADC Malaria Day to highlight the effects of malaria in our countries and interventions that are lacking in the fight against malaria.

Each year the Department of Health in South Africa chooses one province to commemorate malaria day, this year the department chose the Limpopo to highlight the incidents of malaria in that province.

From January to July this year, 564 cases compared to last year figure of 283 for the same period were reported in Limpopo. This figure is a cause for concern.

Malaria is a disease that is caused by a parasite that enters human blood through the bite of an infected mosquito. The SA Department’s prevention strategy is two-fold:

to prevent the communities that live in the high-risk areas from getting bitten by the malaria infected mosquito
to make sure that when people are sick from malaria that they are diagnosed and treated quickly. Malaria if not detected early can make one very sick and may even kill.

This year’s key message for our SADC malaria Day is: PROTECT YOUR FAMILY FROM MALARIA LET YOUR HOUSE BE SPRAYED for two reasons:

The first being that Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) is the most important and effective strategy for preventing malaria for our country. The evidence is that in South Africa we have kept malaria transmission under control, using this strategy since the beginning of a formalised Malaria Control Programme, which dates back to the early 1940’s.
The second reason is that we need to remind you the communities that they should comply with our Malaria Control Programme spray teams when they come to spray their houses.

South Africa has achieved good successes in malaria control over the past 5 years, however the neighbours in the north and east have not recorded the same level of success as South Africa has done. We can sit back and watch the situation spiral out of control or we can take a stand and assist. We have decided that we should help!

You may ask why should we help our neighbouring countries when we should be focusing all our efforts here in South Africa. The answer to that is that if malaria transmission is reduced in our neighbouring countries then we as South Africans will benefit, our health care facilities at the peripheral levels will not have to deal with huge numbers of malaria cases, our tourism sector will grow due to increased travel to new “malaria free areas”. This is exactly what our malaria project has shown in the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative, with Swaziland and Mozambique.

To our officials and health care workers in the malaria affected areas of the Limpopo, South Africa (the Limpopo included) is epidemic prone for malaria, as we have seasonal unstable malaria transmission and our communities are not immune to malaria.

The malaria parasite does not sleep. When we are taking a break the malaria mosquito takes the advantage and attack. We therefore urge our health officials to ensure that there is proper planning in place to attack back. We must make sure that our epidemic preparedness and response plans are in place, that spray teams are on standby, clinics are well stocked with drugs and malaria test kits so that increases in malaria cases can be appropriately dealt with.

We are confident that we will be able to deal with malaria more effectively this coming season. We look forward to seeing the fruits of your hard labour through the statistics in the coming year.

To the communities, malaria is a disease that can be prevented, treated and cured, no one needs to die from this diseases. We spray houses to kill malaria mosquitoes so that we can prevent malaria transmission in our communities.

We urge you to allow the spray teams to spray your houses and to go to your nearest health facility should you have fever, headache, chills and weakness, it will save your life.