In an interview with Jornal de Angola, Public Health Minister Silvia Lutucuta said that the country has taken advantage of its historic relations with Cuba in health care and specifically benefits from its vector control knowledge in the case of malaria.

Another aspect she noted was that specialized training in Family Medicine is currently being conducted in the municipalities by Cuban professors, who are helping the training component of good community medicine practices, which are fundamental in prevention, care, and health education.

Angola reduced malaria deaths from 12,000 to 9,000 in 2023, due to the population’s broader access to health care, Lutucuta said on April 15, at a meeting of the National Commission to fight HIV/AIDS and endemic diseases.

The minister added that early diagnosis and timely treatment are crucial to these results.

However, she acknowledged that social and environmental determinants of health have effects, especially on environmental sanitation and limited access to water and education.

These realities directly influence the transmission and prevalence of the disease in communities.

The Ministry is working on issues such as integrated vector control by distributing long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets to pregnant women and children under five years of age.

“Transmission has remained stable in the last few years,” said the minister, who commented that 9,230,515 cases of malaria were reported in 2022, while 10,485,089 cases were accounted for in 2023, with a decrease in the lethality rate from 3 percent to 2 percent year.

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