2023-05-07 21:05:52
World Malaria Day 2023 edition was celebrated this Saturday in Diourbel. According to Governor Ibrahima Fall, who chaired the meeting, this is to strengthen interventions in the fight once morest malaria with communities and vulnerable people.
The Ministry of Health and Social Action has included the elimination of this disease in the development objectives within Senegal’s reach. This, in keeping with the theme. “It’s time to get to zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement,” he says. Beyond that, defeating malaria is part of our country’s ambition to make universal health coverage a national reality, according to the governor of the said region. The actors in the fight once morest malaria thus want to stimulate a national dynamic that will put the country on the road to the elimination of malaria by 2030.
An inclusive struggle
Indeed, the 2019-2028 National Health and Social Development Plan (PNDSS) provides that the populations are organized around basic health structures, in particular huts, posts and health centers, to initiate and implement prevention and early treatment of malaria cases.
This approach justifies the identification and designation of home care providers (DSDOM). In this context, two thousand (2000) bicycles were distributed to the DSDOMs of the regions of Kédougou, Kolda, Sédhiou and Tambacounda where the areas of high malaria incidence are currently concentrated in our country.
In these four (04) regions, a total of 191,886 patients, all conditions combined, were seen by the DSDOMs in 2021. Among these cases, 56,285 cases of malaria were recorded and treated correctly, according to the directives of the National Malaria Control Program (PNLP).
In this same dynamic, in 2022, 6,935,681 long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets (LLINs) were distributed to 1,492,985 households, thus representing effective coverage of 14,231,522 people in 12 regions of the country. In addition, the various rounds of the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (CPS) campaign, organized in 16 health districts, made it possible to protect 755,224 children during the period of high malaria transmission. 216,033 LLINs were distributed free of charge to populations during the mass campaign in 2022.
In the routine distribution, 36,650 mosquito nets were distributed, including 7,355 to pregnant women and 1,552 to children under 5 years old.
Regarding intra-domiciliary spraying (AID) in the Daaras of the Touba district, in 2021, 1,845 out of 1,857 Daaras were covered, 13,202 rooms sprayed and 27,483 people protected, i.e. a coverage rate of 99%. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) began in 2019 in health posts with incidence above 10% (10 per thousand inhabitants) with 27 health posts in Touba and 16 in Diourbel. The coverage rates obtained during the CPS in 2022 are 97% in Touba and 93% in Diourbel.
The Mbacké health district benefits from all categories of interventions. That of Bambey, for more than 5 years, has been in pre-elimination, which means that it has an incidence of less than 5%. “These very interesting results are the work of all the actors who carry out the national health and social action policy” specifies the governor.
They have also contributed to the significant reduction in malaria morbidity and mortality for several years, everywhere in Senegal: administrative authorities, technical and financial partners, territorial elected officials, health professionals, grassroots community organizations, religious and customary authorities, private sector, traditional communicators, press actors as well as all the other actors who support our daily effort to protect the population once morest malaria, insists the governor.
Epidemiological situation
The epidemiological situation of our country concerning malaria shows, from 2017 to 2021, a significant drop in malaria morbidity among children under 5 and pregnant women, respectively by 26.3% and 51.1%.
“These advances encourage our adherence to major international initiatives in the fight once morest malaria. Thus, to date, significant achievements have been made in the implementation of the various interventions of the Ministry of Health and Social Action”, according to the governor of the city of Dakar who read the speech by the Minister of Health and Social Action during the celebration of World Malaria Day in Diourbel.
Ibrahima Fall to give, by way of example, the implementation of the strategies with proven effectiveness recommended by the World Health Organization, and which resulted at the operational level in an improvement in access to services and the quality of case management. These strategies, he says, have also contributed decisively to the control of malaria and its pre-elimination in several health districts of the country.
The challenge of elimination
The major challenge of our country remains, today more than ever, the elimination of malaria by 2030. In this, the recommendations of the WHO, Roll Back Malaria and the availability of our other partners meet the full will of Macky Sall President of the Republic. This means that the theme of this 2023 edition, “it is time to reach zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement”, underlines the need for urgent action and the mobilization of additional funding, so that the investments made to date are producing maximum impact in the fight once morest malaria in accordance with the objectives set in the National Malaria Control Strategic Plan 2021-2025. Moreover Vincent Dossou Sodjinou, acting resident representative of the World Health Organization in Senegal, invites to strengthen actions towards groups at risk with a better analysis to guide interventions in innovation. “Despite the significant drop in the number of cases observed, regions such as Kolda Tamba and Kédougou continue to bear the burden of malaria and deserve special attention,” he explains.
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