A review and planning meeting on malaria control opened in Yaounde yesterday.

Malaria continues to be a major health problem in the Central African Sub-region and Africa in general. Eliminating it therefore is a major preoccupation of every country in the sub region. It is in this light that a three-day annual review and planning meeting opened in Yaounde yesterday Tuesday July 10.

Speaking during the opening, the Minister of Public Health, André Mama Fouda said since 2007, over eight million Long-Lasting Mosquito bed nets have been distributed to 80 per cent of the population. This, according to him, is bearing fruit as the number of cases in hospitals and morbidity due to malaria has reduced from 40 per cent in 2010 to 30 per cent in 2011. He called on participants to thoroughly examine the road maps of each state in order to reinforce malaria control and work toward total elimination of the disease.

Organised by the World Health Organisation and Roll Back Malaria (RBM), the meeting brings together National Malaria Control country coordinators and partnership leaders from the Central African Sub-region, national WHO programme administrators and other partners who provide a variety of expertise. The purpose of the meeting is to assess the implementation level of key interventions in the fight against malaria as defined in each of the Central African country’s roadmap so as to boost malaria control and work towards pre-elimination.

The 2011 World Health Organisation report on malaria indicates that the African region has gone from 90 per cent to 61 per cent of cases of malaria registered on the planet. More that 90 per cent of deaths caused by malaria still comes from this region. Children below five years old constitute 86 per cent of cases of death. Pregnant women, people living with HIV/AIDS and victims of catastrophes are also particularly vulnerable to malaria.