Pic; MEC Manzini (Third from right) standing alongside the Spray Operators to be deployed in three Local Municipalities
By Lwazi Raul-Shongwe and Kopano Dibakwane
Ehlanzeni District in Nkomazi, City of Mbombela and Bushbuckridge, are three areas in Mpumalanga which reportedly face high cases of the malaria endemic every year.
Mpumalanga MEC for Health, Sasekani Manzini, revealed this reality during the launch of the 2024/2025 Malaria Indoor Residual Spraying Season, at Nkomazi Local Municipality, on Thursday 5 September.
“ Today’s gathering remains a momentous occasion because it is an amplified declaration of war against malaria. As the Mpumalanga Department of Health, we have observed and noted that the malaria season transmission in the province starts from August every year and continues to May of the following year,” said Manzini.
According to Manzini, the 2023 report by World Health Organisation(WHO) stated that the estimated number of global malaria cases in 2022 exceeded pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels in 2019, with an estimated 249 million cases of malaria occurring in 85 malaria-endemic countries in 2022. Manzini also said the report reveals startling figures of 608 000 deaths occurring globally due to malaria in 2022.
“ The Mpumalanga Department of Health, during the 2024/2025 financial year, has employed 400 malaria spray operators who will be conducting free and effective Indoor Residual Spraying(IRS). Indoor Residual Spraying is one of the effective tools in our arsenal against malaria.
“ By coating the walls and surfaces inside homes with insecticides, we disrupt the lifecycle of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, thereby significantly reducing the transmission of the disease,” said Manzini.
She said Mpumalanga has significantly reduced the burden of malaria as a result of interventions such as the IRS program, with a 78% reduction in local malaria cases from 2017 to 2023. She however stated that in the 2023/2024 financial year, Mpumalanga indicated a total of 1 992 malaria cases with 12 deaths. According to Manzini, one death is too much, especially because malaria is a preventable disease.
“We are on track in our commitment to contribute to the country’s achievement of malaria elimination status by the year 2028, as outlined in the National Malaria Elimination Strategic Plan,” she said.
The 400 Spray Operators employed by the Department will reportedly work until March 2027. According to Manzini, Bushbuckridge sub-district will receive 165 spray operators, while Nkomazi and Mbombela sub-districts will receive 175 and 60 spray operators, respectively. The sprayers are said to be expected to spray a total of 745 000 targeted structures in the three Local Municipalities(300 000 in Nkomazi, 377 960 in Bushbuckridge and 79 000 in City of Mbombela).
MEC Manzini called upon community members to be on the lookout for some of the symptoms of malaria, such as; flu-like symptoms which is fever and chills that shake your whole body, headache, muscle and joint paints, chest pains, breathing problems and cough, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pains.
