Ethiopia plans to eliminate malaria by 2030
As it fight Covid-19 today, Ethiopia has defined a roadmap and will work to eliminate malaria in 10 years, a disease considered endemic in about three quarters of its territory.
During the previous decade, we have made significant progress in controlling this preventable and curable disease, but a large percentage of the population is still at risk of infection, the State Minister of Public Health Dereje Duguma stressed in a public address.
Ethiopia, he recalled, joined the global campaign to eradicate malaria and a process is currently underway to meet that goal in 12 zones and 239 'woredas' (districts) in six regional states.
However, in 2020 there were delays because, due to the impact of Covid-19 and other difficulties, the eradication program was not implemented as expected, Duguma said at a ministerial meeting held in Adama, capital of Oromia State.
This, he added, forces health authorities in each of the country's districts to identify as soon as possible the strengths and weaknesses observed in the past, in order to find more effective ways to treat and destroy malaria by 2030.
According to national and international sources, by 2019 some 60 million Ethiopians were at risk of infection, with three to five million cases reported annually, and some 70,000 citizens dying from the disease.
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