Fight against malaria supplies A sports walk to raise awareness

As a prelude to the celebration of the World Malaria Day scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday 25 April 2023

Emmanuel Eboua

“It is time to reach zero malaria: invest,
innovate, implement”. This is the theme chosen in Cameroon for the celebration of the 2023 edition of the World Malaria Day scheduled for tomorrow,
April 25th 2023. It is in prelude to this event that the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), with the support of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsanté) and other technical and financial partners,
organized on Saturday, April 22, 2023, a sports walk. The initiative brought together hundreds of people from the esplanade of the Ministry of Health, passing
through the Boulevard du 20 mai to criss-cross neighbourhoods like Elig-Essono,
Etoa-Meki and Nlongkak. Public ministries, independent associations, civil society organisations, they come from different
sectors of activity.
Beyond the simple objective of relaxing the body, the aim was to raise awareness on the need to take into account the basic measures to avoid this disease that affects all social strata. “Dear people, malaria is here. Let’s sleep in long-lasting impregnated
mosquito nets; let’s avoid mosquito bites”, repeated over and over again from the loudspeakers attached to a vehicle accompanying the caravan. “It’s a tough awareness-raising walk. Everyone is sweating.
But there are major challenges. You must have seen the resistance of mosquitoes.
We need new tools to allow us to really avoid all these collections,” said the permanent secretary of the Pnlp, Marcelin Ateba Joel. To the participants, “we will in turn sensitise the neighbourhood. All that we followed as advice, we will faithfully retransmit the message to those who did not have the chance to participate in the sports walk,” Clémence Atsama Astride.
Inhabitants at risk
It should be recalled that the World Malaria
Day was established by the member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) during the World Health Assembly. This was in 2007. Before that date, it was called Africa Malaria Day. Also, it should be mentioned that 300 million people are affected by malaria every year and 3000 die every day in sub-Saharan Africa. Cameroon is among the fifteen countries most affected by malaria with 2.9% of all malaria cases and deaths in the world. Between 2017 and 2020, the number of cases increased by 3.8%, from 250 to 260 per 1000 inhabitants at risk.