The year 2003 was one of both frustrating setbacks or encouraging progress in the fight against malaria—depending on your point of view.
Such was the consensus at the annual conference of the National Malaria Center, held this week at the National Maternal and Child Health Center.
The three-day conference, which ends today, drew officials from the Ministry of Health, provincial health departments and NGOs to review last year’s work and coordinate the national response to the disease on the eve of the 2004 rainy season.
The center’s annual report cited 2003 as a year in which “hard-fought gains in malaria control …began to be reversed,” citing an increase in the total number of treated cases and deaths nationwide and funding delays that crippled work in some parts of the country.
However, health officials pointed to dramatic increases in outreach work and the numbers of patients seeking treatment for malaria as evidence that their efforts are working.
There were 132,571 treated cases of malaria in 2003, more than the 110,762 in 2002, according to the Ministry of Health. The average incidence rate in the provinces rose to 10.3 percent from 8.6 percent in 2002.
However, “we don’t see that all as negative,” said Dr Abdur Rashid, malaria control consultant with the World Health Organization. He cited the greater numbers of patients seeking treatment and better reporting by local authorities as evidence that the center’s programs are working.
Of the delay in funding from donors, the center’s report noted, “all other constraints followed from this major constraint.”
The Ministry of Health’s delay in setting up the financial systems required by the Global Fund meant that the financial body withheld its pledge to Cambodia, and projects intended to be launched with those funds lingered in offices of the Malaria Center and NGOs.
Delays in the national drug procurement process held up the delivery of insecticide used to treat bed nets, a cornerstone of the center’s prevention efforts, until after the planned net treatment dates, according to the report.
“In a country like Cambodia, if you delay the finances, problems like malaria will go up,” Dr Seshu Babu, an adviser to the center, told the gathering on Wednesday.
On March 19 and March 20, the malaria center will train the provincial health director and malaria supervisor of each province in the national guidelines on malaria education, treatment and reporting. Once officials have gone through the training, the center will release funds to the provinces, he said.
But before those guidelines are finalized, the conference is an “opportunity to get opinions from all levels,” said Dr Srey Sin, director of the Kompong Thom provincial health department. “We need support at the provincial level because the problem is there—not in Phnom Penh.”
