Malaria's Toll on Angola

The CEML Hospital is committed to providing prevention solutions to the blight of the deadly malaria virus; still the number one killer on the continent of Africa.   The recent statistics concerning malaria infections and deaths confirm the need for our continued efforts.

The co-ordinator of the Programme of Combat to Malaria, Filomeno Fortes, said this Monday in Luanda that Angola registered 3.1 million cases of malaria during the year 2009, which resulted in 8,000 deaths.

The official was speaking about the situation of malaria in Angola and the national strategic plan in a forum about the role of journalists in the fight against malaria. He said that the transmission of the disease in not uniform, having added that the central, coastal Benguela province was the most endemic of the country's 18 provinces with 28% of the cases of 2009.

According to the physician, Angola has two of the most violent species of mosquito of the world, the giant anopheles mosquito and the anopheles spontaneous mosquito, which can adapt to various circumstances living inside and outside residences and can also feed from animal blood.

The Angolan Government wants to gain control and reduce the disease by 2015 and eradicate the disease by the year 2030. To reach this goal, the Ministry of Health aims at reducing the cases of malaria by 60 percent, by the year 2012, and cover 80 percent of children below the age of five and pregnant women with malaria.

The treatment of pregnant women through quick tests, the use of mosquito nets and an integrated control are the objectives of the CEML Hospital and the Health Ministry. In 2008, the country registered 3.45 million cases of malaria.  (Angola Press, April 19, 2010)