Luanda - The Ministry of Health (Minsa) plans to acquire about 10 million mosquito nets, as part of its actions to combat malaria, the Secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda said Friday in Luanda.
According to official figures, since the beginning of 2022, Angola has recorded around 2.5 million cases of malaria which have resulted in over 3,000 deaths.
Malaria, which is the main cause of death in the country, mainly affects pregnant women and children under the age of five.
The disease, which caused around 4 million cases and over 5,000 deaths in 2021, is most common in the provinces of Luanda, Lunda Norte, Malanje, Uíge, Bié, Benguela, Huambo and Huíla.
The figures show that malaria accounts for 35 percent of the demand for corrective care, 20 percent of hospital admissions, 40 percent of peri-natal deaths and 20 percent of maternal mortality.
The Angolan government is implementing a multi-sectoral programme to combat malaria, which aims to reduce the mortality rate to 43.3 percent.
For this purpose, MINSA is to launch, later this year, a public tender for the acquisition of mosquito nets.
Franco Mufinda, who was speaking during the opening act of the National Conference of Flame Angola (Advocacy of Religious Leaders for the Elimination of Malaria), said that this acquisition is of extreme importance because the use of mosquito nets helps to reduce the cases of malaria infections by about 30 percent.
He said that a campaign started on 25 April in Kwanza Norte province, with the distribution of about six million mosquito nets.
