Health Minister warns malaria remains leading cause of child death in Africa

Addis Ababa, September 18, 2023 (FBC) – Malaria epidemic remains the leading cause of death in Africa particularly children, Ethiopia’s Health Minister, Lia Taddese remarked.

The 9th Pan-African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA) Annual Conference and Exhibition opened today in Addis Ababa.

More than 1,000 participants have been attending 5-day global conference to discuss on ways to combat malaria in Africa.

In her virtual message she delivered to the conference, Health Minister Lia said the spread of malaria and related diseases in Africa are major public health predicaments noting that Malaria epidemic has been the leading cause of death in the continent particularly children.

According to her, Ethiopia has been registering encouraging achievements in the prevention and control of the disease due to the efforts carried out by the government in collaboration with various stakeholder over the past two decades.

Ethiopia has been implementing national malaria strategic plan, which was commenced in 2021 with the objective to eliminate malaria from the country.

Though significant progress has been gained in terms of controlling malaria and associated diseases in Africa, conflict, displacement, floods and droughts have caused the relapse of the disease all over again, she added.

Hence, she stressed the need to maximize efforts to control the spread of the disease by properly utilizing the available technologies.

Pan-African Mosquito Control Association Chairman Professor Dilnesaw Yehualaw for his part said the strategy designed to control malaria by eliminating mosquito from the continent of Africa was successful.

However, he added that currently the spread of the disease has been increasing due to the occurrence of new type of mosquitoes and other diseases like Dengue.

In Ethiopia, the number of individuals contracting and succumbing to malaria has undergone a major decline of 90 percent over the past decade.

Nonetheless, the spread of malaria has been on the upswing in the past two years mainly due to natural and man-made problems like climate change and security issues.

However, the government, in collaboration with partners, is working on the prevention and control of malaria in Ethiopia, it was learned.