DAR ES SALAAM – WITH malaria killing more than 100 000 people every year in
Tanzania, health authorities have urged people to use
insecticide treated nets (ITN) as a practical solution.
”Studies in many parts of Tanzania and Africa show the use of
insecticide treated nets helps to check the spread of malaria,” the
head of the preventive services department at the ministry of
health, Ali Mzige, said Tuesday.
Mzige told a news conference that his ministry, in partnership
with various stakeholders in the country, was currently
distributing ITN in several areas, especially remote rural
districts.
However, other Tanzanian medical authorities said that while
malaria remained the leading killer disease, it was no longer
getting due attention like HIV/Aids.
”The biggest threat to the fight against malaria today is
HIV-Aids,” the programme manager of Tanzania’s National Malaria
Control Programme (NMCP), Alex Mwita, was recently quoted as saying
by local newspapers.
Official records show that an estimated $54-million (62-million euros) are available for HIV-related projects in Tanzania
in 2002/03, but the NMCP has just $731 000 to combat malaria
during the same period.
Given that malaria kills more people in Tanzania than does Aids, and the socio-economic impact the disease has on a country which is
keenly trying to tackle poverty, this is a worrying trend to many
humanitarian workers.
Figures published by the NMCP earlier this month show that 93,7% of Tanzanians run the risk of catching malaria, resulting
in over 18-million cases of the disease and 100 000 deaths every
year.
”This makes malaria the major cause of morbidity, mortality and
socio-economic problems in Tanzania at the moment —
notwithstanding the serious, and growing, problem of HIV/Aids,” the
NMCP said. – Sapa-AFP