Rains, filth and medicine shortages turn Angola into malaria hotbed
Luanda — Heavy rains, filthy conditions, medicine shortages and endemic corruption have combined to make a lethal malarial cocktail for Angola. Since the start of the year, more than 300,000 cases of the disease have been reported across the country, leading to at least a thousand deaths. The toll, say experts, is a clear sign of the poverty and failings of governance in a country which, paradoxically, is one of Africa’s top oil producers. "The number is frightening," said Jose Antonio, the director of public health in Kilamba Kiaxi, a poor neighbourhood of the capital. Luanda province, which includes the capital, has been the hardest hit with more than 75,225 cases and 117 deaths followed by Benguela in the west of the country where 43,751 cases and 213 deaths have been reported. In 2017, 7,000 people died from the disease. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 90% of malaria cases worldwide and 92% of deaths caused by the condition that is spread by infected mosquitoes. Malaria remains ...
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