Malaria study receives global praise

Namibia is on route to malaria elimination with a significant drop in malaria cases observed over the past decade from over 400,000 cases in 2003 to just under 3,000 cases in 2013.

Data provided by MTC has helped form part of an inclusion study to be published in the Malaria Journal, a medical journal at the forefront in malaria intervention and information programmes.
A proud mobile operator announced this week it has participated in a study of which the results are now published in an international specialist publication.
MTC, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS), the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the University of Southampton contributed to the publishing of the”Integrating Rapid”, which will be in the 10th Edition of the Malaria Journal.

MTC helped to link population movement data with malaria transmission data to provide the ministry with a better understanding of potential malaria hot spots. This allowed the National Vector-borne Diseases Control Programme (NVDCP) under the ministry to improve the targeting of their malaria interventions to the communities that are most at risk.
Namibia is on route to malaria elimination, with a significant drop in malaria cases observed over the past decade from over 400,000 cases in 2003 to just under 3000 cases in 2013. This represents an impressive decline of 97%, an astonishing achievement and it earmarks Namibia to reach elimination by 2020.
MTC has now made available one of the largest datasets in the SADC region to assist in health research that could be used for further study of other diseases in Namibia and throughout SADC. “With this collaboration in malaria prevention, MTC now sets an example to other private companies within Namibia to take initiative and ownership of elimination and to assist the country in wiping out the disease once and for all” MTC said.
MTC reminded everybody that it operates the only full-service customer contact centre in Namibia dealing with service queries ranging from telephony, SMS, fax, GPRS, data, voicemail and 3G/HSDPA. A staff compliment of 421 people serves a diverse market of both pre- and postpaid subscribers. Its diverse and extensive database provides a map of community distribution, enabling medical researchers to extrapolate disease spills based on demographics.