ZANZIBAR SUCCESS IN MALARIA FIGHT WORTH EMULATING

Headlined “Zanzibar closer to zero malaria cases”, the leading front-page report in this newspaper yesterday was that Zanzibar has maintained malaria prevalence below one percent in the past decade. If nothing else, this has apparently bolstered the chances of the world-famous “Spice Isles” eliminating the deadly mosquito-borne infectious disease from archipelago by next year.

If and when that happens, Zanzibar would join the 40 countries and territories which have been granted “malaria-free certification” by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that include China, El Salvador, Algeria, Argentina, Paraguay and Uzbekistan

According to the 2021 World Malaria Report by WHO, “there were an estimated 241 million malaria cases – and 627,000 malaria deaths – worldwide, in 2020 ... with the increases linked to disruptions in the provision of malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment during the viral Covid-19 pandemic”.

According to worldatlas.com, malaria is the third leading cause of death in the country, mostly occurring in Mainland Tanzania (7 percent; 36 percent of child deaths).

Indeed, Zanzibar started indicating “a decline in malaria incidence after the introduction of Long Lasting Insecticide Bed Nets to people in endemic areas… Also, the spread of indoor residual spraying has significantly contributed to the reduced cases of malaria in Zanzibar”.

Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part and parcel of the United Republic of Tanzania – with Mainland Tanzania across the Zanzibar Channel being the other integral part.

So, why should, would, Zanzibar be able to “maintain malaria prevalence at below one percent” for years – doing the seemingly impossible – while Mainland Tanzania next-door miserably fails to do so, pray?

What we on the Mainland need to do is to take a leaf out of Zanzibar’s book on malaria prevention, go back to the drawing board – and come up with functional measures that would surmount malaria, making it past history in our land.

LONG LIVE SCOUTS MOVEMENT

Tomorrow, February 22, is World Scout Day (WSD), when scouts associations in some countries celebrate the birth of the founder of the Scout’s Movement, Robert Baden-Powell, and his wife Olave. Baden-Powell was born February 22, 1857. Olave was also born on February 22 – but in 1889: 32 years later, and well after her husband had formed the Boy Scouts Movement in Britain in 1908.

In 1910, Baden-Powell co-founded – together with his sister Agnes Baden-Powell – a parallel organiSation in Britain for girls, named Girl Scouts/Girls Guides. World Scout Day – known as World Thinking Day by Girl Scouts/Girl Guides – is the day when members of the two associations re-affirm their oath-cum-pledge to society in general.

Basically, they “promise, on my honour, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country ... To help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” The Tanzania Scouts Association – which was first established in Zanzibar in 1912, and on Mainland Tanzania/Tanganyika in 1917 – continues to play “a positive role in preparing our young to honourably serve their communities in creating a better world”.

So, we heartily say long live the Scouts Movement.