Tanzania health ministry draws ambitious plan of combating dengue disease
What you need to know:
- The Government of Tanzania has drawn up an ambitious plan of destroying mosquito breeding grounds in different parts of the country.
Dar es Salaam. The Government of Tanzania through, the Ministry of Health, has drawn up an ambitious national plan of destroying mosquito breeding grounds in residential areas.
Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu made the statement today, saying the move would help counter the spread of malaria disease and the outbreak of the Dengue fever.
Speaking during the spraying exercise of insecticides in Mchikichini Ward, Ms Ummy said the Dengue fever had forced the executives from her ministry to reconsider how to counter mosquitos causing the disease.
“We sat down for deliberations and came up with the idea that the National Malaria Control programme should work in a different style apart from that of distributing treated mosquito nets and insecticides or using tests as we need now to combat mosquito breeding grounds to end the problem,” said the minister.
On the impact of the Dengue fever, the minister pointed out that great efforts had been made to contain the disease in Dar es Salaam Region and that number of patients suffering from the disease had substantially gone down.
“The good news is that the number of patients has gone down as last May there were 2759 patients and the following month of June the number went down to 790. So, let me appreciate the efforts that are being made and I urge members of the public to be part and parcel of war on vector-borne diseases,” said the minister.
