People must allow the indoor residual spraying teams into their homes to prevent an increase in malaria cases.
These messages were repeated excessively at the launch of the 2026 Indoor Residual Spraying Campaign at Divundu, Kavango East region.
The Minister of Health and Social Services, Esperance Luvindao, says when people refuse the team entry, they ultimately put pressure on an already inundated health care system.
"This year 122,612 malaria cases have been confirmed nationally. 81% are local, which means about 99,000. 9,956 hospital admissions were recorded. When community members are stubborn and refuse to listen and continue to lock their homes, what does that mean for healthcare? We complain that we wait long in queues; we complain about this, but when we drive 122 extra cases to the hospitals, that costs money, right? Is that correct? It costs money. It costs healthcare workers, the nurses you see sitting here, and the doctors to draw the attention away from your child with tonsillitis and what they were treating and redirect their attention. When we refuse for our homes to be sprayed, that is when we can start having open and honest conversations."
Dr. Luvindao says every time a community member refuses the indoor residual spray team to enter their premises, they are doing themselves a disservice.
Governor of the Kavango East Region, Hamunyera Hambyuka, gave an update of the malaria figures in the region as of last month.
"The region has recorded 37,603 confirmed malaria cases, of which 35,968 were local cases and 1,635 were imported cases. Tragically, 22 lives have been lost to malaria this year. We have continued to record malaria cases every week, and approximately 95% of the cases reported this year are local transmissions."
Nationally, 122 died from malaria, and the Ministry of Health says this means people only seek medical care when it's too late.
Dr. Richard Kamwi, a malaria ambassador, said, "At least 80% of the households must be covered. If we cover less than 80%, you must know, we would have failed."