The Ministry of Health (MoH)is set to start licensing mosquito repellents in a new effort to roll back malaria.

The Minister for Health, Dr Agnes Binagwaho, made the announcement Wednesday while meeting with various stakeholders to discuss the new measure, among other developments in the fight against malaria, which has been on the rise in the country in the recent past and how to execute it.

Participants in Wednesday’s meeting included representatives of pharmacies, Rwanda Biomedical Centre, and the Ministry for Trade and Industry, and farmers who produce products used in making repellents.

Other stakeholders in this effort include Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda Standards Board.

During the consultative meeting, Dr Binagwaho said in order to ensure the country is on track in fighting malaria, they will start licensing products that are not malaria medicine but can be used to fight it.

These include mosquito nets, insecticides, repellents and larvaecides.

"The reason behind this move is to ensure these products are on the ministry’s authorised pharmaceutical products, the importation and distribution of these products is currently not controlled and importers and manufacturers are not known and authorised by the ministry,” she said.

The objective of this move is to protect the population from buying substandard and counterfeit products.

It also requires any person or company that wants to import and distribute malaria diagnostics, preventive and treatment products to seek prior authorisation from the ministry after meeting minimum requirements related to pharmaceutical establishments in Rwanda.

"We want to make sure that these products are licensed because what might be good today might not be good tomorrow. Mosquitoes keep evolving and adapting to changes. We want to be able to track these repellents so that we can also adapt to changes required to fighting malaria,” said the minister.

For anyone or any company seeking to import and distribute anti-malarial drugs and products they should be registered with a competent authority.

The anti-malarial medicines should be prequalified by World Health Organisation (WHO) and registered in Rwanda and the diagnostic products, mosquito nets, insecticides, mosquito repellents and larvicides must be registered.

"By licensing these products, we are taking exceptional measures because Rwandans deserve exceptional attention. Global trends change roughly every two years and by licensing repellents we want to protect the population by stopping the multiplication of the virus, to reduce parasites in communities and to encourage early treatment,” she added.

The final decision on when the move will take place will be decided in the next meeting with stakeholders once a legal framework has been drafted.

Meanwhile, the ministry has resorted to social media to raise awareness on the need for early treatment for malaria, sleeping under treated mosquito nets, and clear stagnant waters in an effort to fight malaria.

Dr Binagwaho on Wednesday said government is taking a zero tolerance stand on deaths resulting from malaria, insisting that people shouldn’t be dying of malaria.

She said that data from WHO shows that Rwanda still has the lowest increases in malaria cases in the East and Southern Africa despite recent upsurge.

"People are succumbing to malaria because they delay to seek medical attention, partly due to lack of medical insurance. Although cases have increased drastically, the deaths have been stable and reduced, thanks to community health workers,” she added.

Since 2012, malaria cases have increased from 514,173 cases in 2012 to 1,957,402 in December last year. However, death rates reduced from 84 per cent in 2012 to 22 per cent in December 2015.

According to statistics from the ministry, Kirehe, Huye and Nyanza districts are the most affected. These areas have strong agricultural practices such as rice cultivation compared to districts less affected by malaria. However, since last year, Kirehe District has made significant improvements , from 217 malaria cases to 170 in 2015 but it remains the most affected district.

Huye comes in second with 167 cases, Nyanza follows with 165 cases, Ngoma has 158 cases, while Gatsibo comes in fifth with 149 cases. Rwamagana, Bugesera and Nyagatare have the lowest cases with 88, 76 and 64, cases respectively.

In a related development, it has been discovered that mosquitoes’ resistance to insecticide has been growing since 2010, from 0 per cent to 77.4 per cent.

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