By: Mohamed M. Sesay
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation together with other development partners, has on Monday the 24th April 2023, commemorated World Malaria Day at the conference Hall of the Ministry
Chairing the occasion, Harold Thomas Said this year’s theme for the celebration of the world malaria day is ” to delivery zero malaria: invest innovate and implement”. He added that the celebration which would fall on Tuesday is geared towards increasing knowledge and change attitudes in terms of preventing malaria. He added that all health centers that host too many malaria related illnesses would be robustly targeted with the prevention and control measures messages. He called on the media to be very proactive in the prevention and control of malaria related messages. He also encouraged the media to continue disseminating malaria related messages even after the celebration.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mustapha Kabbba , said he was very delighted to be present at the commemoration of the World malaria day. He said the day is set aside in order increase awareness about the malaria disease. He said with robust awareness they could help citizens to know the required prevention and control measures regarding to malaria. He disclosed that very soon vaccines would be bought in Sierra Leone order to manage malaria. He however noted that the Ministry still has a challenge in terms of malaria related preventive and control measures. Dr. Kabba noted that without adequate drugs, the efforts for malaria prevention and control would be fruitless. He therefore, called on the media to be very proactive in the dissemination of malaria prevention and control messages in order to have zero malaria stance in the country.
The Malaria Technical Advisor for WHO Dr. Louisa Genda, said in 2021, over two thousand death were recorded relating to malaria. She said to mitigate such, they need to increase the funding gap in order to sustain and combat malaria related death. She assured that malaria vaccine for Sierra Leone will come in 2024. She said many people are missing out in terms of services geared towards malaria prevention and control measures. She reassured that WHO had come up with strategies in order to address such challenges and to address the barriers people are faced with in terms of malaria control and prevention measures. She congratulated the ministry for their indelible effort towards the fight against Malaria.
Giving update of Malaria programme, the Acting Programme Manager Dr. Dennis H. Marke, disclosed that 1000 death per birth were record in the past five years before the survey was done. He said infant mortality rate had reduced from 92 to 75% of malaria relates death. He continued that the vision of the country malaria elimination to reduce the burden of malaria drastically across the country. He said one of the key building principles is to provide universal coverage of malaria prevention and control measures.
Dr. Marke assured that they are determined to provide services to the people at all times especially services that are of high quality with affordability and accessibility. He added that to achieve such move, they need to work with development partners. He said their goal by the end of 2025 is to reduce the malaria burden and improve the wellbeing of every citizen. He said their objectives at the end of 2025 are; they want to reduce malaria by 75%, strengthen malaria surveillance, to provide timely and adequate malaria commodities to healthcare centers across the country include private health centers, improve on modification of resources maximize the efficiently use of the resources.
He continued that one of the interventions is to provide mass distribution of mosquito bed nets, intermittent preventive treatment, to introduce malaria vaccine by next year among other interventions from the Ministry. He added that all of those interventions involve advocacy and awareness which was the more reason they need the media in that direction. He encouraged citizens to stop blind treatment for malaria and to also diagnose before treatment.