Tanzania to eliminate malaria by 99 per cent by 2020, VP explains

VICE-President Samia Suluhu Hassan has revealed that, the number of deaths resulting from malaria has been reduced to just nine fatalities among 1000 people in Tanzania.

“We have reduced the number of deaths resulting from malaria from 33 deaths per 1000 population in 2008 down to 9 per 1000 population by the end of last year 2017,” she said, adding that the malaria deaths continued to drop as days went by.

She said the country was targeting to cut down malaria prevalence cases by 99 per cent in three years from now.

The Vice-President was addressing the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Malaria Summit in London, UK, where she told the delegates that Tanzania had also increased the accessibility of treated nets by over 75 per cent as of now.

Excerpts from the VP’s speech was made available in Arusha by dispatch from Ms Rachel Jones, the Media Coordinator engaged by the ‘Malaria No More- SUK’ coalition. “My country has managed to increase the accessibility of treated nets among the population by 24 per cent in 2008 to 75 per cent in 2017,” said VP Hassan, who explained further that malaria prevalence in the country hadbeen halved to 7.3 per cent as of latest figures.

Mama Samia Suluhu’s speech also highlighted the fact that, the number of estimated malaria cases was reduced by 70 per cent from 18 million cases in 2008 to just 5.5 million cases by the end of 2017, saying Tanzania committed itself to reducing malaria prevalence from 10 per cent in 2012 to just 1 per cent in 2020.

The meeting was led by Mr Trevor Mundel, President of Global Health for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Mr James Whiting, Executive Director of Malaria No More UK.

The Malaria Summit, London was attended by 14 Heads of State and Government, Bill Gates, scientists and private sectors and international organisations, making significant commitments that will catalyse progress towards beating malaria at a time when efforts to end the preventable disease have stalled. There were commitments to beat malaria made by Heads and State and Government, and Ministers from 19 Commonwealth Countries.

Commitments exceeded expectations by £200m. The Summit featured collective commitments worth over US $ 4.1 billion from governments, the private sector, philanthropists and International Organisations.

The Summit also featured a call to action - led by Heads of Commonwealth State and Government, HRH the Prince of Wales and Bill Gates – urging the Commonwealth leaders meeting tomorrow to commit to halving malaria within five years.

That commitment would prevent 350 million cases of the disease in the next five years and save 650,000 lives across Commonwealth countries. Specific commitments featured at the Malaria Summit London included:

High level political commitment towards malaria elimination; significant increase in investment from malaria endemic countries to leverage and complement donor funding and new innovative tools to overcome the growing threat of drug resistance.