Campaign protects 1.1 million people from malaria in DR Congo
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
A campaign led by the Global Fund, the Health Ministry and their partners is intended to protect 1.1 million people from malaria in eastern DR Congo. The prevention effort also aims to ease pressure on health facilities and facilitate the response to Ebola in Ituri, according to the Global Fund.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Congolese Ministry of Health and their partners are launching a malaria protection campaign for around 1.1 million people in four health zones in Ituri province, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The operation aims to support the response to Ebola, according to the Global Fund.
Planned to run for about two weeks, the campaign combines the distribution of antimalarial medicines, insecticide-treated mosquito nets and spatial repellents, which release substances that keep mosquitoes away. It is the first mass distribution of spatial repellents supported by the Global Fund, which says that using them with mosquito nets reduces malaria infections by about a third.
Ituri, the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak, recorded about 1.48 million cases of malaria in 2025, according to provincial health authorities. Prevention should also reduce the number of patients with symptoms similar to those of Ebola and ease pressure on health centres, according to the Global Fund.
The campaign comes after Belgium sent a mobile laboratory to Bunia on 30 October, followed by warnings about access to water in Bunia published on 1 November as part of the response to Ebola.
