Zambia aims to eradicate malaria, the country's biggest killer, within three years after deaths from the disease halved last year from 2014. Polity reports that this is according to Zambia Health Minister Chitalu Chlufya, who said that the southern African nation had recorded a decline in malaria incidence rates from 407 cases per 1,000 in 2014 to 336 cases per 1,000 last year and would be malaria-free by 2021.
"One of our big goals is to eliminate malaria by 2021. It counters progress in development but it is a preventable and treatable disease," Chilufya said. Malaria deaths in Zambia had halved to 1,400 last year compared with 2014, he is quoted in the report as saying.
Chilufya said the government had also stepped up indoor spraying, surveillance and research.
Officials at the World Health Organisation in Zambia could not be reached for comment.
The report says the world has made huge strides against malaria since 2000, with death rates plunging by 60% and at least 6m lives saved globally. But efforts to end one of the world's deadliest diseases – which kills about 430,000 people a year, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa – are under threat as mosquitoes become increasingly resistant to measures such as bed nets and drugs.
[link url="http://www.polity.org.za/article/zambia-aims-to-eradicate-malaria-by-2021-health-minister-2018-06-27"]Polity report[/link]