Malaria elimination has been an agenda that the country has been pursuing for at least a decade now. During that time, the country had experienced fluctuations in malaria case numbers, some years recording increases, while others achieved case rates within elimination targets. These inconsistencies have been attributed to various factors, including the impacts of climate change on breeding seasons, programmatic weaknesses in other areas and the surveillance and Gaps in robust surveillance and timely follow up of cases.
With most years recording less than 1,000 malaria cases, the program’s focus has shifted toward strengthening surveillance systems., This requires timely data collection, analysis and responsive follow up by the health care workers. For this reason, Botswana Ministry of Health’s National Malaria program and the Health Informatics team had received assistance from WHO to enhance all facets of surveillance systems. The team comprises of Malaria surveillance expert, server and DHIS 2 applications experts. The team has been working closely with the ministry to improve data indicators, reporting, data analysis as well as to inform timely decision-making for malaria elimination efforts. As the Ministry has chosen the DHIS2 to be the mainstay aggregate reporting tool, there was a need to capacitate the MOH informatics staff on managing the back end of the systems, updates and managements that are required.
Speaking at the opening meeting, the National Malaria Program Officer, Dr Lisani Ntoni expressed gratitude for the support, stating “We hope that by the end of this mission, end users will confidently utilize the DHIS2 system with more confidence, and help us plan and respond effectively at the national level. Our goal remains clear: to eliminate malaria in Botswana.” Welcoming the WHO experts, the Director of Public Health Department, Mr Sam Kolane remarked, “The mission to support us in improving the Malaria Surveillance system, will bring us closer to our elimination goals. Strengthening the capacity of our health informatics colleagues aligns perfectly with the Ministry of Health’s aspirations to digitize health data.”
