Sudan’s Health Minister admits malaria’s spread in Khartoum and other states

Khartoum-SudaneseOnline-Sudan’s Health Ministry has acknowledged that malaria is widespread in Khartoum and several states of the country, pointing out that it has become resistant to chloroquin.
Director of Epidemiology Department at Health Ministry, Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud, said in press statements on Thursday that some fevers had spread in the states, revealing that he has paid visits to areas of Al-Siteit to Abyei, demanding the drying water sources on a weekly basis to break the life cycle of mosquitoes.
There is a high burden of malaria-related morbidity and mortality in Sudan. However, the national malaria control programme, with WHO’s support, has reduced the number of malaria cases from more than four million in 2000 to less than one million in 2010. Between 2001 and 2010, the number of deaths due to malaria reduced by 75%.
WHO works in close collaboration with the national malaria control programme to implement appropriate and cost-effective malaria control interventions. These include the distribution of artemisinin-based combination therapy treatments, rapid diagnostic tests and long-lasting insecticidal nets, and the introduction of the home-based management of malaria strategy.