Ministry launches new malaria plan

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that the government had launched a strategic plan designed to reduce malaria mortality by 50 percent by the year 2010. The vice-minister of health, Dr Demise Tadese, told representatives at a three-day workshop convened under the Roll Back Malaria programme that the government was devising new strategies to curb the spread of the disease, the pro-government Walta Information Centre reported on Wednesday. Demise said the disease was now spreading to areas traditionally free of malaria, and was consequently putting in jeopardy the country's socioeconomic development. As many as 40 million Ethiopians are now at risk from the disease. He said the number of people at risk from malaria was increasing in Ethiopia due to changes in climate, environmental conditions, population growth and resistance of the parasite to commonly used anti-malaria drugs.