Working together towards success in controlling malaria in huambo province, Angola

Malaria is the first cause of morbidity and mortality in Angola. Angola has 18 provinces and an estimated population around 17 million. There are three epidemiologic classes: hyper-endemic (Northern part of the country), stable meso-endemic area (Central) and unstable meso-endemic area (South).In the last ten years, the Ministry of Health, the National Malaria Control Program, and national and international organizations have made efforts to control it. In Huambo Province, where about 14% of the total Angolan population lives, the number of malaria cases decreased by 85% and the deaths decreased by 98% to just 31 deaths between 2008 and 2012 (see Table 1).Factors that have contributed to the reduction of malaria cases include: increase in number of health professionals, principally doctors, work with organized communities, health fairs (Uhayele Vimbo) for rural/ isolated populations, rapid malaria tests and microscopes, combined antimalarials, spraying, ITN distribution, improvement in diagnosis and treatment, equipment for spraying, anti-larva projects in all municipalities, communes and neighborhood, population-level health education campaigns, improvements in the health information system and rapid alert, earlier care-seeking for malaria symptoms. Table 1 Number of malaria cases and deaths, Huambo 2008-2012 Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Number of cases 620,300 530,620 480,053 382,762 87,852 Number of deaths 1,559 802 744 143 31