Malaria in Zimbabwe: Prevention, Symptoms and Getting Tested

Malaria in Zimbabwe is seasonal and geographic: risk rises sharply during and after the rains, and is concentrated in the lower-lying, hotter parts of the country. It is preventable, and it is treatable when caught early — the deaths that occur are overwhelmingly linked to delay.

Where and when the risk is highest

Transmission is highest in low-lying areas — the Zambezi valley, the lowveld, and much of the north and south of the country — and lower on the central plateau, including the higher parts of Harare. Risk peaks in the rainy season and the months just after it, when standing water breeds mosquitoes. Anyone travelling from a low-risk area into a high-risk one is particularly vulnerable, because they have little acquired immunity.

How to protect a household

• Sleep under an insecticide-treated net, every night, with the net tucked in. Nets are the single most effective household measure. Repair holes; a torn net is a doorway.
• Accept indoor residual spraying when the spray teams come. The programme works because coverage is high — houses that refuse weaken protection for the whole area.
• Use repellent on exposed skin in the evening, and cover arms and legs after dusk.
• Screen windows and doors where possible.
• Drain standing water around the home — tins, tyres, blocked drains, containers.
• Protect pregnant women and young children first. They are at greatest risk of severe disease, and antenatal services provide specific protection during pregnancy.

Symptoms: act on the first ones

Malaria typically begins with fever, chills, headache, body aches, tiredness, and sometimes nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea. In children it can present simply as fever and irritability or refusal to feed. It is easy to mistake for flu, which is exactly why people delay.

Go for a test the same day if you have a fever and have been in a malaria area — do not wait to see whether it passes. Warning signs of severe malaria that need immediate emergency care include confusion or drowsiness, convulsions, difficulty breathing, repeated vomiting, inability to keep fluids down, very dark urine, and a child who is unusually sleepy or floppy.

Testing and treatment

Diagnosis is by rapid diagnostic test or microscopy, widely available at clinics, and village health workers in many rural areas can test and start treatment. Treatment follows national guidelines and must be completed in full, even after the fever goes — stopping early leaves parasites behind and contributes to drug resistance.

Never treat malaria on guesswork with leftover tablets or medicines bought on the street. Get tested, get the right treatment from a health facility or registered pharmacy, and go back if you do not improve.

Travellers

Visitors and Zimbabweans travelling into high-risk areas — Victoria Falls, Kariba, Mana Pools, Hwange, the lowveld — should take medical advice before travelling about preventive medication, use nets and repellent, and remember that malaria can appear days or weeks after returning home. Tell any doctor you see afterwards that you were in a malaria area, wherever in the world you are.

Why prevention beats everything

Every prevented case saves a family the cost of transport, testing, treatment and lost work, and every early-treated case avoids a severe one. Nets, spraying and early testing are cheap; a severe malaria admission is not.

This guide is general health information, not medical advice. Any fever in a malaria area should be assessed by a qualified health worker.

More health guides are in Health and on the guides page.