The feasibility of Malaria Elimination in Kazungula District
By Maswabi Precious Matantilo on December 24, 2014 in Malaria, News
The World Health Organisation defines malaria elimination as the permanent interruption of local mosquito-borne malaria transmission in a defined geographical area, usually at the country level. Zambia‘s National Malaria Strategic Plan of 2011-2015 calls for the establishment of five malaria free zones. With 2015 being a few weeks from now, we follow up on Kazungula District where malaria prevalence has drastically reduced over the years in order to ascertain the possibility of elimination.
Kazungula District lies on the north bank of Zambezi River about 70 km west of Livingstone, Zambia’s tourist capital. It is almost at the quadripoint where four countries nearly meet, namely Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. In this case, Kazungula risks importing and exporting malaria among these countries making elimination in the area difficult to achieve.