Namibia joins 21 other African Countries with the recent launch of the ‘Zero Malaria Starts with Me’ campaign. 

This pan-African movement aims to accelerate prevention efforts against malaria and calls on individuals, communities, political leaders, and private sector to make a personal commitment towards malaria prevention.  

The recent increase in malaria cases requires innovative strategies and greater resource allocation if we are to see a reversal of increase in cases.  The latest WHO’s World malaria report, estimated 241 million malaria cases and 627 000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2020, representing 14 million more cases in 2020 compared to 2019, and 69 000 more deaths. Namibia recorded more than 20,000 malaria cases and over 50 deaths nation-wide.  

Speaking at the launch of the Zero Malaria Starts with me campaign, the Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services, Honorable Dr Ester Muinjangue said that Namibia prioritized the elimination of malaria.  She noted that malaria prevention is challenging due to ‘low utilization of malaria prevention interventions including resistance by community members to have their structures sprayed during the annual indoor residual spraying campaign; inadequate financing for the elimination programme; insecticide resistance; and high cross-border transmission among others’. She said that the “Zero Malaria Starts with Me” campaign is intended to raise awareness at the highest political level and encourage a multi-sectoral approach to addressing this key public health issue.  It is also a call for community leadership and ownership for malaria control. Namibia will now use this slogan in prevention messages as the country intends to intensify its communication campaign.  

WHO Representative, Dr Charles Sagoe-Moses, in a speech read on his behalf, said that the COVID-19 pandemic struck at a point when global progress against malaria had already plateaued.  By around 2017, there were signs that the phenomenal gains made since 2000—including a 27% reduction in global malaria case incidence and a nearly 51% reduction in the malaria mortality rate—were stalling.  He said that Namibia reported an overall increase in the number of malaria cases between 2019 and 2020. With a total of 13,530 cases reported in 2020 compared to 3,404 cases in 2019.  He further referred to an increase in the number of deaths in 2020 compared to the 2019, with 43 and 7 deaths respectively.

He appreciated the campaign as it is a long-term behavioural campaign and that its launching will ensure increased and sustained demand for quality malaria prevention and care services. The campaign also aim to strengthen engagement of community leadership to emphasize the importance, safety and effectiveness of the insecticides being used for the Insecticide Residual House Spraying (IRS).  

In Namibia the Insecticide Residual House Spraying (IRS) campaign has been faced with the challenge of low coverage due to locked structures and refusals, the reasons for this included lack of prior notification to households on when the IRS campaign would take place and inconveniences caused to the households as they need to prepare the structures for spraying.  Additionally, some communities believed that the IRS insecticide is not effective nor safe for their families and livestock. The main aim of the IRS is to reduce the mosquito population that causes malaria  before the malaria season.  The campaign intends to mobilize communities about the IRS to ensure households are prepared for the IRS campaigns. 

The implementation of malaria prevention interventions will become easier  if communities feel that they “own” the programme and are actively involved, which is likely to increase coverage, bringing us a step closer to malaria elimination.