MINISTRY OF HEALTH RECEIVES MALARIA MICROSCOPES

The Ministry of Health received donation from the Gaborone Rotary Club, Pan African Vivax and the Ovale Network (PAVON) from Ghana eight microscopes to help detect malaria.

The Senior Consultant Maternal at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Morrison Sinvula said that the new technology will help easily detect, fight and eliminate malaria in Botswana.

This year in May, PAVON conducted Malaria Microscopy training in Gaborone and the training has proved to be very effective as it helped some of the laboratory scientists and technicians to attain a Level 1 External Competency Accreditation for Malaria Microscopy (ECAMM) in August, which is a level recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) for one to be a competent malaria microscopists and trainer.

“We are actually the closest to eliminating the disease from the eight Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, looking at our population, number of cases and deaths,” said Dr. Sinvula.

The President of the Rotary Club in Botswana, Mr. Bill McClean said that malaria and polio eradication had been an important part of the Rotary Club of Gaborone’s focus for the past 40 years. About their contribution in Botswana, he said their club was one of the first organisations to promote the deployment of Long life Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets (LLINS), with donations of these nets in endemic areas such as Gweta, Shorobe, Mababe, Khwai and Sankoyo villages.

With the eight microscopes donated to the Ministry of Health, it will help Botswana beat and eliminate malaria by 2025.