Nelspruit - Mpumalanga's Department of Health and Social Development wants to eliminate malaria transmission by 2015.
MEC Dikeledi Mahlangu said malaria elimination is a "high priority" in the province.
"All strategies must be intensified in the fight against malaria. Local malaria transmission must be reduced to zero by 2015, and we will also focus on malaria case management and awareness to ensure that the malaria death rate is reduced.
"We have already done extensive work in this area, especially in our preparations for the FIFA Soccer World Cup," said Mahlangu.
She said it was fortunate that the World Cup would be played during the malaria off-season.
"Nonetheless, we have not rested and to date we have sprayed more than 18 000 rooms in lodges and guest houses in the high-risk areas of Bushbuckridge, Nkomazi, Umjindi and Mbombela," she said.
South Africa is using the controversial DDT (dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane) spray against malaria-carrying mosquitoes in homes in both Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
Mahlangu said her department had increased its spray coverage rate to 92 percent in the last financial year.
"More than 469 000 structures were sprayed in Nkomazi, Bushbuckridge, Kruger National Park, Mbombela and Umjindi. With the indoor residual spraying programme, malaria vector mosquitoes are killed and malaria transmission is thus reduced."
She added that it was regrettable that lives continued to be lost because of the disease.
"We recorded 1 856 malaria cases in the last financial year, with 21 deaths. These deaths represent a 1.13 percent fatality rate, which is above the norm of 0.5 percent. Our investigations revealed that contributing factors were late presentation of patients to health facilities, misdiagnosis by primary healthcare facilities and delays in referrals to the next level of care," she said.
According to the national Department of Health, about 14 000 cases of malaria are reported in the country annually, mainly in the Lowveld, Limpopo and the eastern part of KwaZulu-Natal.
It is estimated that 88 million people in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region live in malaria-risk areas.
