Rwanda to Introduce New Household Testing Strategy to Curb Malaria Spread

The Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) has unveiled a new strategy to strengthen the country’s fight against malaria. Under the new approach, all members of a household will be tested if one person is diagnosed with the disease.

The initiative would initially be implemented in the City of Kigali before being scaled up to other districts across the country.

Recent statistics from RBC show that in February 2025, districts in the City of Kigali were among the top five in the country with the highest number of malaria cases — namely Gasabo, Kicukiro, Bugesera, Gisagara, and Nyarugenge.

Gasabo District currently leads the country with 15,409 malaria cases, followed by Kicukiro with 10,473, while Nyarugenge ranks fifth with 5,161 cases.

Among the 25 sectors with the highest number of malaria infections nationwide, 15 are located in Kigali, led by the Kinyinya Sector which tops the list with 3,283 cases.

To combat the surge, RBC says one of the key strategies includes early detection of malaria parasites to ensure timely treatment and prevent further spread of the disease.

“When a community health worker or doctor detects malaria, they typically administer the medication to the individual and take it home — only that,” said Epaphrodite HABANABAKIZE, Malaria Prevention Senior Officer at RBC. 

He added, “This approach will help reduce malaria transmission among the population, and once transmission is lowered, it serves as a form of prevention.”

He noted that under the new approach, a health worker will visit the home of any patient diagnosed with malaria to test everyone in the household. 

“Those who test positive but are not showing symptoms — despite carrying the malaria parasite — will still be given malaria medication,” he said.

HABANABAKIZE emphasized that treating asymptomatic cases is crucial to interrupting the infection cycle. “Even if you are not exhibiting symptoms, you may already be infected. Providing treatment in such cases helps prevent the onset of symptoms and further transmission,” he explained.

He also urged the public not to neglect routine prevention methods such as sleeping under insecticide-treated mosquito nets, using mosquito repellents, and maintaining general cleanliness to eliminate mosquito breeding sites.

Rwanda has made significant progress in its fight against malaria, recording a sharp decrease in cases from 4.8 million in 2016/2017 to 620,000 in the 2023/2024 fiscal year. Malaria-related deaths have also declined significantly during the same period. However, the disease remains a concern, with 802,428 simple malaria cases reported in 2024 alone, according to RBC.

In a bid to boost prevention efforts, Rwanda introduced drone-based larvicide spraying in swampy areas in 2020, complementing indoor residual spraying and directly targeting mosquito breeding grounds.