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Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
MATABELELAND South leads all the other provinces in the fight to eradicate malaria, a cabinet minister has said. In an interview in Victoria Falls, Dr David Parirenyatwa, the Minister of Health and Child Care said there were four stages in the fight against malaria namely malaria control, pre-elimination, elimination as well as eradication and Zimbabwe is now in the pre-elimination stage.

“We have made tremendous progress in rolling back malaria in the country and we have now entered the malaria pre-elimination period joining South Africa and Botswana among other countries in the region,” he said.

He said the country had been implementing programmes which he said had resulted in Matabeleland South leading in the fight.

Dr Parirenyatwa said the country was on the right track in eradicating malaria although the use of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) still remains a contentious issue in the world. He added that Zimbabwe has opted for indoor residual spraying in place of DDT.

“Our programmes are to control malaria and we have been doing it on a zonal basis. For example Matabeleland South, we are looking at a situation where there is completely no malaria, that’s pre-elimination,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.

“Incidences of malaria have dropped in Matabeleland South and we are going to other provinces. We are going towards elimination like what they have done in Europe, they have eliminated it using DDT but we can’t do it now because there will be an outcry if we use DDT,” he said.

Dr Parirenyatwa also said the use of treated nets was one the measures that should be taken by people so as to effectively deal with malaria.

The regional director for Roll Back Malaria Professor Sheila Tlou said there was need for co-operation between member states and partners in the fight against malaria.