Luanda – A delegation of senior officials of Angola Health Ministry is taking part in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting of the Ministers of Health and Finance of the Malaria Elimination Secretariat (E8) taking place in Windhoek, Namibia, with the aim is to discuss strategies to eliminate the disease in the Southern African region.
The two-day meeting taking place on October 11-12 under the motto "Zero malaria starts with me", aims to discuss strategies to fight malaria in the SADC region enabling more countries to get rid of the disease and to unite the efforts of the eight member governments of the E8 project, whose aim is to eliminate malaria in the region by 2030.
Speaking at the opening session, the Namibian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Netumbo Nandi Ndaitwah, praised the efforts undertaken by the member states to eliminate malaria and called on more policies to be implemented so that states can be free of it by 2050.
The Namibian Minister said malaria seriously affects the development of the populations of countries that have not yet managed to eliminate the disease from their public health systems, underlining that the time has come for zero malaria to be declared in the countries of the region, ensuring the fight against the disease and poverty.
Malaria continues to be the leading cause of death in these countries, the SADC report shows that at least 63 million cases and 42,871 deaths were recorded last year.
As regard to the report, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80% of malaria cases were recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which had the highest number of cases (39%), Mozambique (16%), Angola (14%) and Malawi (11%).
The project was set up in March 2009 in Windhoek, following a call from the African Union and SADC to encourage the region to eliminate the disease that causes more than 600,000 deaths a year worldwide, according to WHO figures.
Strategically, the project also aims to improve access to health services by identifying and managing malaria cases in border areas and providing appropriate tests and treatments for the disease.
From 2019 to 2021, SADC member states invested around 929 million US dollars in the fight against malaria.
E8 is financed by the Global Fund and is being implemented in first-line countries that are close to eliminating the disease, such as Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini and Botswana, and in second-line countries such as Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, which could declare malaria elimination by 2030.
Angola and Namibia have a joint programme to fight the epidemic across the border with the setting up of new fixed and mobile posts.
ART/MRA/AMP
