Thursday, 20 May 2010

MALARIA: Control across the Limpopo

Zimbabwe and South Africa's Limpopo province are working on an agreement to eliminate malaria on both sides of the Limpopo River.Top malaria scientist Professor Maureen Coetzee said: "They are in the middle of drafting a trans-Limpopo malaria control application."The health department in Limpopo, which borders on Zimbabwe, reported an increase in malaria cases in December in the Vhembe and Mopani districts.Zimbabwe's malaria programme has suffered setbacks in control and research, said Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria."For many years Zimbabwe had an excellent malaria control programme and now it is down to almost zero," he said.The National Institute of Health Research (formerly the Blair Research Institute), which does malaria research, has lost many of its staff and much of its resources.Tren said: "Since 2000 the malaria control programme has broken down."This could present a threat to Zimbabwe's neighbours, since people travel with the parasite.
http://www.fightingmalaria.org/news.aspx?id=1438

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