"We compared the epidemiological weeks and Benguela is already in the descending phase," said Sílvia Lutucuta, at a press conference where the situation on malaria was made in Luanda.
The minister attributed the decline to "energetic measures" that were taken under the contingency plan, including epidemiological and laboratory surveillance, improvements in sanitation and drinking water supply, social mobilization and logistics.
"We are doing everything in the reference units to ensure that the patient who goes to the consultation is immediately tested and leaves with their medications," she added.
Last week, it was reported that an outbreak of malaria and dengue was plaguing the province of Benguela, with the daily record of two thousand cases, with one death in every 400 diagnosed cases, forcing health facilities to an occupancy rate three times over capacity.~
Silvia Lutucuta stressed that the investment made in ways to prevent and fight covid-19 are helping to fight malaria.
"Our children are being treated better, especially in intensive care. We have had gains with covid that are not just for covid, they are useful for the treatment of other illnesses," she said.
The head of the Ministry of Health reiterated the goal of reaching 2025 as a country with the eradication of malaria, indicating that there are "joined efforts that will continue to be made, above all in the determinants of health", namely basic sanitation.
Silvia Lutucuta admitted that the combination of accumulated garbage and heavy rains, such as those that occurred in April in Luanda, boosted the emergence of mosquitoes.
"We are in a situation where the various types of mosquitoes are reproducing on a large scale and diseases are starting to emerge," she stressed.
Angola registered, between January and May 2021, 3,799,458 cases of malaria and 5573 deaths, with a mortality rate of 0.1 percent, representing an increase in cases and a reduction in deaths compared to the same period of the previous year.
