Botswana

Introduction

Malaria transmission is highly seasonal occurring between December and April mostly in the northern part of the country. The annual reported number of confirmed malaria cases in 2010 was 1,046 with 8 deaths.

Progress

Botswana has banned oral artemisinin-based monotherapies from the country and has removed tariffs on all key anti-malarial commodities with the exception of LLINs. Botswana has successfully mobilised resources for malaria control with financing available for all anti-malarial commodities in 2012 and significant progress has been made in scaling-up malaria control interventions including IRS and Community Case Management. The country has achieved the Abuja target of 15% national public sector financing (health as a percentage of total government expenditure). Impressive progress has also been made on key MNCH tracer metrics including PMTCT coverage, deliveries by skilled birth attendants and DPT3.

Impact

Botswana has made significant progress in malaria control. The number of confirmed malaria cases reported annually has declined from 3,362 during 2000–2005 to only 1,046 cases in 2010. Malaria deaths have declined from 21 to 8 deaths during the same period. As such, the country has achieved the international target of reducing malaria burden by at least 50%.

Key Challenges

• Due to the significant progress in malaria control, the Ministry of Health made a decision to move the program from control to elimination. A key challenge in malaria elimination is maintaining malaria high on the political and funding agenda as the burden continues to drop. Additionally, there is a risk of re-introduction of malaria from neighbouring countries.
• There is reported insufficient uptake of vector control interventions by communities.
• There is currently over reliance on clinical diagnosis by clinicians.