E8 plans to eliminate malaria by 2020

VICE president Nickey Iyambo on Monday said malaria should be totally eliminated from Namibia.

He said this during a meeting with representaives of the Elimination 8 Initiative (E8) at the Old State House.

Iyambo said the current spike in malaria cases in the country (see story on page 1) reminded him of 1990 when malaria killed about 7 000 people in Namibia.

During the meeting, former health minister Richard Kamwi introduced Sir Richard Feachem, a malaria expert from the Global Health Group, which has just entered into a partnership with the recently established E8 secretariat.

Kamwi, who is also the E8 ambassador, said the secretariat consisted of 17 experts, based in Windhoek, from the E8 member states of Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. He said E8’s aim is to eliminate malaria in southern Africa.

Kamwi said Feachem, who is the director of the Global Health Group of the University of California, would support their efforts, not only technically and financially, but also through assigning a medical expert to be based in Namibia.

Eight country focal persons, based in their respective countries, would represent the member states in the partnership.

Kamwi also informed the vice president that the E8 governing board was inaugurated three weeks ago.

“The governing board is composed of eight experts, who are not only experts, but philanthropists and multimillionaires who will see to it that the process is up and running,” he noted.

E8 secretariat director Kudzai Makomva said the group has launched a project which would mainly focus on testing and treating mobile and migrant populations across the region.

She said E8 wanted to strategically locate mobile testing and treatment units at borders so as to provide early access to the testing and treatment of malaria in order to decrease the disease’s spread.

For his part, vice president Iyambo suggested that it would make sense to have some sort of malaria prevention spray at borders.

“While you as a person needs a passport, the mosquitos simply get in,” he said.

Kamwi said malaria programmes in the region were funded by the different governments. The E8 secretariat had received a grant from the Global Fund, while the technical team was funded by the Global Health Group, through the Gates Foundation.

Makomva said an E8 team was deployed across the region six months ago, and has sent a surveillance team to support the Namibian health ministry across the northern regions of the country.

She said the E8 was administering a fund of US$80 million (N$1,05 billion) to support the responses and acceleration of anti-malarial efforts in the eight countries.

Feachem said the front line group of four E8 countries, namely Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Swaziland aimed to completely eliminate malaria by 2020.

The other four countries were working towards eliminating the disease by 2030.

“The countries cannot do this on their own, so the magic of the E8 is that these countries hold hands, and they do it together,” Feachem added.

Malaria is a parasitic infection transmitted through the bite of an infected anopheles mosquito. If treatment is delayed, it may lead to severe illness and eventually death.

To prevent malaria infections, residents in affected communities should:

1. Sleep under mosquito nets

2. Wear protective clothing e.g. long-sleeved clothing which covers the arms and legs. This is particularly important during early evening and at night, when mosquitoes prefer to feed

3. Avoid mosquito bites by using insect repellent

5. Should signs and symptoms (fever being the most common) of malaria occur, seek early diagnosis and treatment at the nearest health facility if infection is suspected.

Malaria can cause a number of life-threatening complications. The following may occur: