Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

National Anti-Malaria Campaign Shows Success in Gorongosa

Jul 13, 2010

Mozambique’s universal coverage campaign against malaria targeted four Sofala districts with nearly 140,000 mosquito nets treated with insecticide, and was considered a success.

The three-week initiative beginning in March was led by the National Malaria Control Program (PNCM), Sofala Provincial Departments of Health, and supported by Population Services International (PSI), in partnership with Gorongosa Restoration Project (GRP) and Health Alliance International (HAI). Mateus Mutemba is the Director of Community Relations for the GRP.

“The turn up at most communities was extremely high,” said Evy van Weezendonk of PSI, who helped distribute nets.  “With some exceptions we managed to distribute to all registered households.”

In Gorongosa district alone, there were 75,000 nets distributed by 10 teams -- the largest effort of the four districts -- to more than 32,000 families living there. Other provinces where families received nets were Nhamatanda, Muanza and Cheringoma.

“In general the response at community level was very positive. People were really pleased,” Ms. Weezendonk said.

Sofala province was appointed as a priority area by the Mozambican ministry of health as part of its universal coverage campaign. All the communities living in the districts of Muanza, Gorongosa and Cheringoma received mosquito nets based on family composition, the majority of households receiving two or three nets each, according to PSI data.

The communities of Nhamatanda located in the Park’s Buffer Zone also received them. With the goal of universal coverage, PSI hopes to distribute the remaining 60,000 nets to the outlaying communities in the Nhamatanda district within the coming months.

“The high turn-up and responses during the distribution showed us that the community members really wanted to sleep under a net.  Some complained that to date, only pregnant woman received nets for free, and that they were so pleased to be included and that now everybody could sleep under a net,” Ms. Weezendonk said.

The 200,000 nets were bought by the Presidents Malaria Initiative, as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program. In an effort to protect all the communities around the Park from malaria, it was agreed to prioritize the distribution of these nets to these four districts.



“A universal coverage distribution campaign can have an enormous impact on the prevalence of malaria in a community,” Ms. Weezendonk said.

Late last year, the PNCM with support from PSI conducted a census to verify the total number of families in the targeted area. After the nets were distributed, the team followed up with the families that received them, and said that 90 percent of the households that received nets had them hanging when PSI visited. There were enough nets for all the members of a family to have access to one every night, and most importantly, PSI confirmed people were using them.

“If every person in a community sleeps under a net every night, it is like there is a very large net hanging over the whole community. The way in which malaria is transmitted is when a mosquito bites a sick person and then bites a healthy person. If both the sick and the healthy person are under net, there is no way for the mosquito to transmit malaria,” she said.

Besides follow-ups with communities, PNCM and PSI will also measure the epidemiological impact of distribution with a malaria prevalence survey for the next two years to measure the long-term impacts of the campaign.

Beneficiary communities feel protected against malaria

The majority of mosquito bites by the Anopheles mosquito occur during the nighttime hours. Beneficiaries of the program said they feel better protected while sleeping with the new nets.


Helena Daniel, from the Massala community, holding her new net that will protect her family.

Helena Daniel is a member of the Massala community in the Vundúzi administrative post, which is one of the communities on Mount Gorongosa. Ms. Daniel has one child and is pregnant with her next. She says that the nets help her family protect themselves from malaria-causing mosquitoes.

She considers the treated nets an important donation that safeguards the health of many people in the region. Also, most families in her community live at the poverty line and are unable to buy mosquito nets on their own; and even if they had the resources to purchase mosquito nets, they are not sold locally.

Ms. Daniel’s sentiment was echoed by António Zeca and Gracia Sozinho from the same community of Massala. In fact, on the day that he received the mosquito net donation, Gracia was recovering from malaria, which he says is all too common in his area.


Gracia Sozinho, Massala community, says he's recovering from malaria.

The fumo or traditional leader of the Nhanguo area of the Gorongosa district sees the treated mosquito nets as vitally important in preventing exposure to malaria affecting large numbers of people in the area he governs.


Fumo Filipe Melo, is the traditional leader of the Nhanguo community and says that the nets are important for preventing malaria.

This program marked the first opportunity for the Sofala Provincial Health Ministry (DPS) to implement universal strategies controlling malaria. Mosquito nets were distributed to the districts of Nhamatanda, Gorongosa, Muanza and Cheringoma, not only to high-risk groups such as pregnant women and children, but rather everyone.

(Malaria is a major risk factor during pregnancy, and it is one of the principal causes of premature births and low birth-weight babies.)

Dr. Isaías Ramiro is optimistic about the positive impact that distribution of the treated nets has in the four districts.

“In recent years, Sofala province has seen a reduction in the number of cases and deaths from malaria as a result of multiple efforts from the Health sector. With this distribution of mosquito nets, we hope to see a larger decrease in the number of infections,” he said.

Dr. Ramiro reported on the 2010 statistics of malaria in the four districts that received the mosquito net donations. In Nhamatanda, Gorongosa, Muanza and Cheringoma, there were 14,966, 13,633, 1,832 and 1,038 cases of malaria respectively between January and May 2010.

Compared with the same statistics in 2008, there was a dramatic drop in malaria cases after the nets were distributed two years later. For example, in 2010, there were more than 15,000 fewer cases in Nhamatanda; in two other districts, there were about 1,000 fewer cases.

According to information on the MISAU website, malaria is the principle cause of illness in Mozambique. The disease is responsible for 40 percent of all hospital visits. Despite a reduction in fatality rates in recent years, malaria remains the principal cause of death in Mozambican hospitals, making up nearly 30 percent of all registered fatalities.

Between January and May 2010, there were nine fatalities in the Nhamatanda district and one in the Cheringoma district. The year before, there were 45 deaths in Nhamatanda and six in Muanza.

The effects of the country’s universal coverage campaign are clear. Nationally, there was a 16.6 percent reduction in malaria cases and a 22.7 percent reduction in the number of deaths in the matter of one year. Rather than targeting high-risk groups only, this campaign has shown that universal distribution campaigns can significantly contribute to the battle against malaria.