Disturbing resurgence of malaria cases in Zimbabwe

Text by: Sébastien Duhamel

On this world day to fight malaria, or malaria, RFI focuses on the situation in Zimbabwe, which is particularly worrying. Since the beginning of the year, the country has already recorded more than 170,000 cases, according to the Ministry of Health, a figure increasing by 44% compared to the same period last year.

Publicity

In the past week alone, more than 18,600 cases of malaria and 17 deaths have been officially recorded in Zimbabwe - 152 dead since the start of the year. The eastern part of the country is the most affected, particularly the provinces of Manicaland, Mashonaland Oriental and that of Masvingo. They alone concentrate nearly eight out of ten cases, according to Joseph Mberikunashe, director of the national disease prevention program.

In a video posted on social networks , the latter specifies that we are currently in the period of peak transmission, usually observed between March and May, a wet and hot season conducive to mosquitoes, vectors of the disease.

An epidemic made worse by the presence of Covid-19

And the problem, according to Joseph Mberikunashe, is that this resurgence occurs at the same time as the coronavirus pandemic. The latter aggravates the situation, according to theMinistry of Health , some symptoms being similar, mainly fever.  

The local press thus echoes a certain panic among the populations who sometimes confuse the two diseases . Indeed, "  it is possible to confuse  ", explains to Agnce France-Presse, Norman Matara, member of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights. It is also "  likely that malaria patients will stay at home instead of going to the hospital for fear of contracting the coronavirus,  " he said.

WHO concern

The World Health Organization is also concerned about this resurgence of malaria. This week, she said the Covid-19 pandemic could disrupt the distribution of mosquito nets and malaria medication.

According to the WHO, this could lead to a doubling of the number of deaths in 2020 compared to 2018, while Sub-Saharan Africa had that year around 93% of all malaria cases in the world as well as 94% of deaths.

►Read also: Containment in Zimbabwe: the population threatened by great precariousness

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