Rwanda has every reason to celebrate the World Malaria Day today since the country has made tremendous progress in accelerating and sustaining access to malaria control and treatment, officials said.

Statistics indicate that between 2005 and 2011, the malaria incidence in Rwanda declined by 86 per cent and malaria deaths declined by 74 per cent in the same timeframe.

Malaria prevalence also decreased from 2.6 in 2008 to 1.4 in 2010 in children under five and from 1.4 in 2008 to 0.7 in 2010 in pregnant women, according to the 2010 Demographic Health Survey.

In 2012, Rwanda emerged among the seven African countries that won the prestigious 2012 African Leaders Malaria Alliance awards for accelerating and sustaining access to malaria control and treatment.

Doctor Corine Karema, a public health researcher, and Director of Malaria Division in the Ministry of Health told The New Times, yesterday, that  universal distribution of mosquito nets is one of the reasons the country is making progress in the fight against malaria.

According to Karema, 82 per cent of households have at least one long lasting insecticide treated nets and more than 70 per cent of children under five and pregnant women sleep under a long lasting treated nets.

"Rwanda has also achieved universal treatment of malaria cases both at health facilities and community level as 99 per cent of malaria cases are lab diagnosed before receiving the correct treatment. Community involvement has also played a big role,” she said, adding that Community Health Workers were trained to test malaria and treat children under five suffering from malaria, she added.

Today more than 94 per cent of all children diagnosed are treated within 24 hours, she added.

Rwanda also launched its strategic plan towards malaria pre elimination which is targeting its reach by 2017.

The number of malaria attributed deaths at the health facilities also declined from 670 in 2010 to 459 in 2012. The proportion of morbidity attributed to malaria at health facilities declined from 7.8 per cent in 2010 to 5.7 per cent in 2012.

Mortality attributable to malaria also decreased from 12 per cent in 2010 and halved to 6 per cent in 2012.

US affirms support 

According to US Ambassador to Rwanda, Donald Koran, these gains are due to the country’s pledge to achieve zero malaria deaths annually by 2017.

"The US government, together with global partners, is committed to supporting the Ministry of Health to achieve this ambitious goal,” he says in an opinion published in this newspaper today.

By scaling up ongoing efforts to prevent malaria, through means such as universal coverage of mosquito nets, it is estimated that countries will save the lives of three million African children by 2015, according to the envoy.

Challenges still remain

Karema cited funding sustainability and sustaining community health insurance and health systems such as timely procurement and distribution of malaria commodities among the main challenges.

"One of the other challenges we still face is the fact that there is no harmonisation of malaria control interventions at the regional level, so we need to develop cross border collaboration. This holds us back,” she said.

In order to achieve zero malaria deaths, Karema advises Rwandans to keep their environment clean.

She noted that it’s vital for "Rwanda to keep the momentum and to stay on course since malaria resurgence is a persistent threat as seen in Rwanda and elsewhere in East Africa.”

"Rwanda has shown that malaria can be defeated and all together Rwandans it is our responsibility to fight malaria and reach zero deaths due to malaria.”