Malaria cases drop in Namibia

A deputy health minister has said the government of Namibia has reduced cases of malaria from 16, 000 in 2014 to 12, 000 in 2015.

To mark the World Malaria Day which falls on April 25, Juliet Kavetuna said that the number of deaths caused by malaria have also been reduced by 95 percent.

In the past years, she said, malaria cases have risen from 3,163 in 2012 to 16,115 in 2014 before dropping to 12,115 in 2015.

"The situation improved somewhat in 2015, only to see localized outbreaks occur again in the first quarter of 2016," Kavetuna said.

The World Health Organization Namibia representative, Monirul Islam, said global malaria cases declined from about 262 million in 2000 to 214 million in 2015.

According to Islam, 88 percent of malaria cases in 2015 were recorded in Africa.