Angola launches campaign to combat yellow fever, malaria

A 45-day sanitation campaign was launched in Luanda on Saturday to collect and remove dustbins from the city which is home to one third of the country's 23 million population and to combat the spread of yellow fever, malaria and other epidemic diseases.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos ordered the establishment of a multi-sectoral sanitation commission on Friday which was chaired by Interior Minister Angelo da Veiga Tavares and also included Deputy Army Commander Gouveia de sa Miranda, seven mayors of the Luanda province as well as community leaders of the province to coordinate the sanitation campaign.

The Angolan national armed forces and police were also mobilized to take part in the cleaning of the capital city to cut the transmission of yellow fever, malaria and epidemic disease outbreak caused by mosquitos, said State Secretary of the Interior Ministry Eugenio Laborinho, stressing that it was a conventional wisdom to mobilize the armed forces and police when the national and public interests were under threat.

Angola experienced a longer rainy season this year than before and the rains created more breeding grounds for mosquitos which were blamed for the transmission of yellow fever, dengue fever and malaria, and yellow fever alone claimed over 100 lives, according to reports from health authorities.

State Secretary for Health Carlos Alberto Masseca said cutting mosquito bites remain the sector's challenge to end the main fever syndrome which started to rise since the end of 2015 when new cases of symptoms like jaundices (yellow sights with some bleeding) started emerging.

Carlos Maseca warned of being on the loose a plasmodium (parasite) responsible for malaria, dengue virus as well as yellow fever, which affects mainly children under 14 years of age. Endit