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Mimika targeted to malaria free in 2018
The Mimika administration is targeting to be malaria free in 2018, earlier than its original target of 2028
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The Mimika administration is targeting to be malaria free in 2018, earlier than its original target of 2028.
Acting Mimika regent Ausilius You said in Timika on Tuesday that the active involvements of all stakeholders was required to accelerate the elimination of illnesses caused by parasites transmitted exclusively through the bites of Anopheles mosquitoes in Mimika.
You said his administration had invited giant mining company Freeport Indonesia's public health and malaria control department, the Mimika health agency and the Amungme and Kamoro Community Development Foundation's (LPMAK) health bureau to discuss efforts to accelerate achievement of the malaria elimination.
'Based on our Renstra [strategic development plan] the malaria free certification is targeted to be achieved in 2028; however, I have asked that in 2018, before the organizing of the 2020 National Games [PON] in Papua, Mimika could be free from malaria,' he said as quoted by Antara.
Mimika health agency head, Ibrahim Iba, said to accelerate malaria control, an Insecticide-Treated Bed Net Campaign Week was slated to be held in Mimika on April 24.
In her visit to Timika last week, Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi praised the efforts by the Mimika administration.
She said 200 regencies and municipalities in Indonesia had been declared malaria free while 117 others were still in the assessment process.
Any regency and municipality in Indonesia can be declared malaria free if its parasite index (API) is less than 1.
Nafsiah said five provinces, namely East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, North Maluku, Papua and West Papua, still had a very high parasite index.
In Papua, the API is 42.6 per every 1,000 people. Mimika's parasite index stands at 246.8 per 1,000, the second highest after Kerom regency, which stands at 317.18 per 1,000.
"It needs a lot of hard work to reduce the API to below 1," said Nafsiah. (ebf)
