19 Mar 2025

Chobe District has recorded 40 new cases of malaria in two weeks, increasing the total cases to 79 this Malaria season which runs from October 2024 to September 2025.

In an interview, Chobe District Health Management Team (DHMT) head of preventative services, Dr Clement Mukadi stated that 26 cases were recorded in one week which was peculiar because they usually recorded that figure in three months period.

Dr Mukadi pointed that no death was recorded so far in Chobe, but noted however that there was one complicated case which was transferred to Nyangabwe Referral Hospital for proper care.

“We advise the community to seek help as early as possible when they notice symptoms like fever, headache, body pains, dizziness because malaria when it is not treated can result to complications which some may not be reversible," he said.

He said the Chobe DHMT was applying the strategy of admitting all the malaria patients whether mild or severe upon diagnosis as a precautionary measure to ensure they took treatment accordingly and minimised complications and mortality.

This, he said, had resulted in exhaustion of resources at Kasane Primary Hospital due to limited bed capacity hence some patients were to Plateau Clinic in Kasane for thorough monitoring by healthcare workers.

“As of Tuesday (yesterday) morning, some were discharged with only six remaining at the hospital and three at Plateau Clinic to be admitted for three days to assess the severity of their situation then we discharge them after three days," said the DHMT officer.

Dr Mukadi stated that Chobe DHMT had the Malaria situation was under control so far as they continued to manage it and respond promptly by deploying resources.

However, he said in a case where the Malaria escalated to an outbreak and put pressure on resources then the DHMT would escalate it beyond the district to a national level.

Dr Mukadi remarked that the surge in cases was alarming hence emphasised the need to break the chain of transmission by applying preventative measures like indoor residual spray (IRS) and use of mosquito nets.

He expressed dissatisfaction with the IRS exercise in the district having reached 50.3 per cent against 85 per cent target district wide.
He said the Parakarungu and Satau achieved the largest coverage with 74 per cent and 67 per cent respectively with Lesoma at the lowest with 28 per cent.

He said upon diagnosing Malaria cases, they deployed a team to carry out investigations. He said findings from the investigations revealed that 90 per cent of the cases were fuelled by unclean surroundings, especially old tyres, old containers and unused jojo tanks stacked behind houses which served as breeding places for mosquitoes.

Dr Mukadi therefore urged the public to keep their surroundings clean to avoid breeding mosquitos. He stated that heavy rains experienced this year exacerbated Malaria infections because water remained stagnant in many areas, becoming breeding grounds for mosquitos. ENDS