NIKI MOORE, St Lucia | Wednesday 3.30pm.
MOZAMBIQUE, Swaziland and South Africa will sign the region’s first international protocol on malaria control in Johannesburg on Thursday in an attempt to stem the spread of the often fatal disease.
The new Lubombo Malaria Control protocol will enable the launch of a R50-million spraying programme in deep rural areas in all three countries.
The initiative follows reports that the mosquito-borne disease is spreading rapidly in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal, with infections leaping from a couple of hundred in the early 1990s to over 14000 in 1998.
Similar infection rates are reported in southern Swaziland and Mozambique.
The protocol forms part of one of the more far-reaching initiatives of the multi-national Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative and is also designed to make the region as safe as possible for international tourists.
Richard’s Bay malaria control officer Sakkie Hattingh said on Wednesday that KwaZulu Natal currently accounts for two thirds of all reported malaria infections in South Africa. “There have been definite large increases in infections and fatalities from roughly 1996. What really worries us is that we’re getting malaria reports from areas where we’ve never had the disease before,” he said.
The new protocol will pave the way for a co-ordinated tri-national spraying and control programme and will provide real protection for rural residents for the first time. Lubombo SDI officials maintain that one of the largest obstacles to development in the area is malaria, which hampers both tourism and commercial agriculture. – African Eye News