Malaria toll rises

Fifty-seven people died of malaria in Zimbabwe last week, bringing the toll to 500 since the start of the rainy season this year, government medical officials said on Tuesday. Medical experts have attributed the rising number of deaths to the heavy rain in most parts of the country, coupled with a lack of funds and chemicals to carry out routine spraying. Since 2001, Zimbabwe has been part of the "Roll Back Malaria" initiative, launched in partnership with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). UNICEF spokeswoman Shantha Bloemen said "excellent" anti-malaria programmes in many districts had been affected by lack of funds and the country's high inflation rate. She pointed out that the price of a mosquito net had spiralled from Zim $14,000 (US $2.63) to Zim $40,000 (US $7.54) in the past few months. In previous years district administrations had provided the nets to people at a subsidised rate, but with the hike in price in recent months, they had been unable to do so. Bloemen said the malaria initiative had bought US $100,000 worth of malaria drugs, using funds received from the Norwegian government. "We now have an ample supply of drugs, but the problem is ensuring that rural people have access to them". Dr Biggie Mabaera, medical director of Mashonaland Central province, where the largest number of cases occurred, said the situation had been aggravated by the lack of chemicals. "We have only been able to spray part of the areas prone to malaria outbreaks, due to these [funding] constraints." Dr Stanley Midzi, head of disease control in the ministry of health and child welfare, said 3,500 malaria cases had been reported up to the end of the wet season [in early June], almost a third more than the 2,500 reported countrywide in the same period last year. The Zimbabwe government has launched several awareness campaigns to encourage villagers in malaria-prone areas to use mosquito nets, wear clothing that covers most of the body at night, and use insect repellant creams.