Dakar, April 24 (APS) – The coordinator of the National Malaria Control Program (PNLP), Doctor Doudou Sène, revealed, Wednesday, in Dakar, that 199 deaths were recorded among the 7,196 cases of hospitalization due to malaria recorded in Senegalese health structures in 2023.
The number of hospitalizations linked to malaria “is 7,196 […], and 98.8% received anti-malaria treatment. The number of deaths from cases due to malaria among hospitalized patients is 199,” said Doctor Sène.
He spoke during a day of discussions with the Association of Journalists in Health, Population and Development (AJSPD).
“There is a low completeness of the data, with 26.66%, as of January 31, 2024”, he noted, referring to the “impossibility” of carrying out “epidemiological analyses”, to which add “insufficiency in the management of inputs at the operational level”.
Doctor Sène specifies that malaria is disseminated in three zones depending on the degree of its prevalence, the first of which, called the red zone, concentrates “76% of malaria cases, 55% of deaths, all ages, and 66% of deaths among under-fives.”
The second so-called yellow zone concentrates 20% of malaria cases, 30% of deaths of all ages and 25% of deaths among children under five years old.
The last so-called green zone is characterized by very low transmission with 4% of malaria cases, 15% of deaths of all ages and 9% of deaths among children under five years old.
He points out that the southern and southeastern zones “still remain areas of high transmission”, a situation due to the behavior of certain populations in whom there is an underuse of long-lasting impregnated mosquito nets (LLINs).
It is in this sense that a LLIN distribution campaign targeting high-risk populations was carried out towards “talibés”, residents of Koranic students. Six hundred and thirty-three Koranic schools were targeted for this purpose, for a total of 35,239 beneficiaries, including 28,036 children and 7,203 non-talibé residents, said Doctor Doudou Sène.
He believes that to achieve the elimination of malaria in Senegal, a certain number of challenges must first be met, including “improving the timeliness and completeness of data”.
There is also the mobilization of local resources for the fight against malaria, he said.
Achieving this objective also requires “cross-border management of malaria” and “targeting high-risk populations and the most exposed areas in the routine distribution of LLINs”. But it will also be necessary to achieve a “scale-up of documentation and investigation in all pre-elimination districts”.
NSS/ASG/BK
 – Senegalese press agency){kind=link}