Tanzania calls on African nations, health stakeholders to bolster anti-malaria campaign

NEW YORK: TANZANIA has called on African countries and stakeholders in the health sector to develop sustainable strategies to accelerate efforts to combat malaria.

Speaking at a high-level meeting in New York on strengthening local innovation and accelerating the adoption of new tools to fight malaria, Tanzania’s Minister for Health, Mohamed Mchengerwa, said African countries should take greater responsibility for developing, financing and ensuring access to the tools needed to eliminate malaria.

Mchengerwa stressed the importance of the issue, noting that malaria continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives every year, with Africa carrying the largest share of the global burden.

“It is difficult to find a family in Tanzania that has never spent an entire night awake with a child suffering from fever, hoping that it is just an ordinary fever. Often, it is malaria,” Mchengerwa said.

He emphasized that the fight against malaria can no longer rely solely on technologies imported from outside the continent or on international funding. He said African countries need to build local capacity to manufacture essential health products closer to the communities that need them.

ALSO READ: How Tanzania is financing the fight against malaria

According to Mchengerwa, Tanzania has already established a track record of contributing to innovation and the development of malaria-control technologies.

He said Tanzania began producing insecticide-treated mosquito nets in Arusha at an early stage, while a facility in Kibaha produces biological insecticides designed to eliminate mosquito breeding sites before the mosquitoes mature.

Tanzania has also participated in research to assess new malaria prevention technologies. Mchengerwa cited a major study conducted in Misungwi, Mwanza Region, which contributed evidence on the effectiveness of dual-active-ingredient insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

Mchengerwa said such initiatives demonstrate the importance of strengthening local innovation, production capacity and research as part of broader efforts to accelerate the fight against malaria in Africa.