Zim's Malaria Campaign Impressive – Official
“I can tell you that Zimbabwe is doing very well as far as malaria control is concerned,” she said in Harare.
“In fact in some areas of Matabeleland we have reached the pre-elimination stage which means our system is very advanced and meets WHO standards.”
Asked why the same World Health Organisation (WHO), which has developed a new drug to combat malaria, had side-lined Zimbabwe from receiving the drug and also pointing out that the developing nations was a major disappointment on malaria control”, the official said:
“I am not aware about this information. We meet all conditions set down by the WHO and in Matabeleland we have reached pre-elimination stage.”
The WHO has said Zimbabwe’s is very disappointing because its malaria cases were increasing instead of decreasing and thus it would not test its new vaccine in the poor nation until the disease was controlled “fully”.
At a closed workshop a WHO spokesperson said: “The WHO has indeed developed a new drug to combat malaria. Unfortunately Zimbabwe will not benefit from this drug just yet because its cases have not been consistent with WHO standards. While we are happy about the progress made by Zimbabwe its cases go up and down and we want them to remain down.”
She said other African countries, mainly in the West, were already benefitting from the new drug developed by the WHO.
WHO secretly bosses gathered in Harare, Zimbabwe, in virtually all the capital city’s major hotels to discuss the benefits of the new “malaria drug” and how best they can spread it around.
The week-long workshops were held at five star hotels including the Monomotapa Crowne Plaza Hotel, Meikles Hotel, and the Rainbow Towers Hotel, formerly Sheraton Harare.
The delegates were selected from WHO offices scattered around the world.
The WHO’s Head of Medical Services addressed the workshop at the Monomotapa Crowne Plaza Hotel, during which he said they must thrash out “malaria from Africa” as part of the WHO mandate.
He said delegates who include medical doctors, pharmacists as well as former nursing staff members must realise that they are working not only for Africa but for the “great continent of Africa”.
While the NIHR official said malaria cases in Zimbabwe had gone down, she admitted that there were still “a few cases that have been reported especially in the tourist resort town of Kariba, which is also very hot during this time of the year”.
More than one million malaria nets have been bought from various organisations including the WHO by donors to try and combat the deadly disease in Zimbabwe.