Malaria continues to be major public health problem in Ethiopia: Ministry

Addis Ababa, April 23(ENA)-- The Ministry of Health says malaria has continued to be a major public health problem in Ethiopia despite the more than four-decade experience of the country in implementing malaria prevention activities.

Diseases prevention and control department head with the ministry, Alemayehu Seifu said malaria ranked first among the top ten in the outpatient morbidity and causes of admission.

Alemayehu was speaking at the opening here on Wednesday of an event organized in connection with Africa Malaria Day, which would be commemorated on 25 April 2003.

More than 40 million people are estimated to be at risk of malaria with 5-6 million estimated cases occurring annually, he said, adding the disease stands 3rd in the leading cause of morbidity.

Alemayehu said the government of Ethiopia has renewed its commitment to prevent and control the disease by adopting global Roll Back Malaria (RBM) initiative, which aims at reducing malaria burden by 50 per cent in the year 2010.

A project proposal was also developed and sent to Global Fund to access fund for fighting HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, he said, adding more than 37 million USD was in pipeline to be approved for year 2003-2004 for malaria control component.

He said though home-based malaria management and community based interventions, including use of insecticide treated mosquito nets are being implemented in the country, there was a need to enhance community-based RBM interventions in the years ahead.

An expert of malaria and vector borne diseases prevention and control team with the ministry, Dr. Daddi Jima said on his part that the ministry in collaboration with UNICEF has distributed more than 800,000 insecticide treated mosquito nets in malaria-prone areas of the country.

The spraying of anti-malaria chemicals was also carried out in various parts of Ethiopia, he said, adding anti-malaria chemicals were being produced in the country.

April 25 was decided to be Africa Malaria Day following the Abuja Declaration by heads of State and government of 44 malaria affected African countries on 25 April 2000.

The theme for this year Africa Malaria Day is ''Insecticide Treated Nets and Effective Treatment for Pregnant Women and Young Children by 2005''.

(END)