Every year, 25 April is commemorated as World Malaria Day (WMD). This year, WHO supported the Indonesian Ministry of Health (MoH) to celebrate WMD via online events under the umbrella theme, “Zero malaria starts with me: Malaria-free, a national achievement”. A series of four webinars were conducted by MoH with support from WHO and various other institutions including the Association of Indonesia Local Health Offices (ADINKES) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Malaria-free Indonesia
On 29 April 2020, a multi-stakeholder webinar on ‘Malaria-free Indonesia by 2030’ was held in collaboration with the National Malaria Programme and ADINKES. WHO Indonesia supported the Provincial Health Office of West Java and District Health Office of Purworejo Regency in Central Java to review initiatives and lessons learned from the acceleration of the malaria elimination programme in Pangandaran and Purworejo Regencies. One example initiative that was shared during the meeting was the integration of malaria migration surveillance and the COVID-19 response in Purworejo, where village malaria workers and village leaders collect the travel history for all new visitors to their village and perform screening for malaria and COVID-19 to identify potential infections of either disease.
Award ceremony and dissemination protocol malaria in pandemic COVID-19
The signature event of the WMD celebrations in Indonesia was an award ceremony conducted on 1 May. During this ceremony, the Minister of Health, Dr. dr. Terawan Agus Putranto delivered a certificate of malaria elimination to the mayors/Bupatis (district leaders) of six districts from across Indonesia that earlier this year were deemed by the national independent team to have successfully achieved malaria elimination, based on the WHO developed malaria elimination guidelines. The six districts were: Bengkulu City, Garut, Tasikmalaya, Nunukan, Tana Tidung, and Wakatobi. WHO provided direct support to Garut and Tasikmalaya Districts to help them reach this milestone achievement.
Following the award ceremony, the National Malaria Programme disseminated the protocol on malaria control during the COVID-19 pandemic that had been endorsed by the Director General, Communicable Diseases Control and Prevention of MoH, Dr Achmad Yurianto. Communicable disease and malaria experts from the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia highlighted the importance of continuing malaria control interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic and presented the new WHO guideline on tailoring malaria interventions in the COVID-19 response as well as discussing the potential impact of health service disruptions on the burden of malaria using examples from sub-Saharan Africa. This signature online meeting was attended by over 300 participants, including malaria officers from province and district level and other partners. Participants were encouraged to continue malaria services and the core vector control interventions in all endemic districts by following the MoH guideline on prevention and control of COVID-19.
Caption: The Minister of Health of Indonesia delivered certificates of malaria elimination to six districts across Indonesia during an online event following World Malaria Day 2020.Credit: WHO/Herdiana/2020
Malaria case management during COVID-19
The National Malaria Programme, with support from WHO and UNICEF, conducted a webinar on malaria case management in the context of COVID-19 on 2 May. Safety issues regarding co-administration of drugs to treat those with co-infection of malaria and COVID-19 were discussed during the webinar which was attended by over 700 health workers.
Vector control interventions
A final webinar was conducted on 9 May 2020 by the Sub-directorate of Vector and Animal Reservoir Control in collaboration with the Indonesian Association of Public Health Entomologists (PEKI), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and WHO on malaria vector control interventions for outdoor transmission. This webinar was attended by 300 public health entomologists and malaria officers from all over Indonesia. The Director of Prevention and Control of Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases, dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, disseminated the protocol on malaria services during the COVID-19 pandemic that emphasizes the important continuation of vector control interventions to protect at-risk communities from malaria infection.
For information on the global WMD campaign please visit: www.who.int/campaigns/world-malaria-day/world-malaria-day-2020