Kebba Ansu
Dr. Desta A. Tiruneh, World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative in The Gambia has called on development partners and donor agencies to help the country in the fight to eliminate malaria in the country by 2025.
He made this call on Friday 23rd April, 2021, at the Offices of the National Malaria Control Programme during the celebrations marking this year’s World Malaria Day (WMD) with the theme ‘Zero Malaria-Draw the Line Against Malaria’.
The WHO representative also called on the government of The Gambia to strengthen existing surveillance system for Malaria in the country and transmission from reporting aggregated case data towards a system that facilitate rapid confirmation, investigation, and reporting of individual cases.
“I would like to assure the government of The Gambia of WHO and the UN’s commitment to propel The Gambia towards elimination. In addition, I would like to call upon development partners and donor agencies to boost investments in Malaria prevention and support The Gambia to ‘Draw the Line Against Malaria’ and achieve ‘Zero Malaria’ status,’ said Dr. Desta A. Tiruneh.
According to him, The Gambia has made remarkable achievement in reducing malaria incidences and deaths, revealing that out of 44 countries in Africa, Gambia is among six countries that has reduced Malaria by 40 percent.
“As The Gambia continues to register gains in Malaria, there is need to reorient-focus towards Malaria sub national elimination. I am pleased to note that the Program has taken this into consideration and WHO will provide all the necessary support and guidance towards sub national Malaria elimination in the country,” he disclosed.
“In addition,” he added “there is need to strengthen existing surveillance systems for Malaria in The Gambia and transition from reporting aggregated case data towards a system that facilitate rapid confirmation, investigation, and reporting of individual cases, and enhanced analytic methods to guide decision-making related to anti-malaria interventions.”
Dr. Desta A Truneh revealed that the advent of Covid-19 has revealed the urgent need to aggressively tackle the pandemic while ensuring that other killer diseases such as malaria are not neglected.
He added that many countries that have registered gains to eliminate Malaria are been threatened with Covid-19, particularly with regard to testing and treatment.
BallaKandeh, Program Manager, National Malaria Control Programme said the sustained investments by Global Fund and other donors have driven Malaria cases and deaths to historically low level, noting that these investments and supports have help reduced Malaria incidence in the country to 50 percent.
According to him, admissions due to Malaria in hospitals and health facilities has significantly dropped to 74 percent, while deaths attributed to the disease has also reduced remarkably to 90 percent.
He disclosed further that Malaria parasite prevalence has also dropped from 4.0% in 2011 to 0.2% in 2014, the prevalence of Malaria has further declined to 0.1% in 2017.
The Program Manager for National Malaria Control Programme continued to disclosed that the annual Malaria incidences declined by 43% across all seven regions for the past four years, hinting that from 149 per 1000 population in 2011 to 87 in 2014 and to 35 per 1000 population in 2017.
Kandeh revealed that the advent of Covid-19 has derailed the efforts of eliminating Malaria in the country, revealing that many individuals and pregnant women fears to visit the health Facilities to seek Anti Natal Clinic in Reproductive Child Health Services.
He added that misguided used of social media to spread false information about Malaria and Covid-19 also makes the battle to eliminating Malaria harder, while urging each and every one to report to health facilities immediately for treatment of malaria.
