By Jeanette Dadzie
In 2016, Africa University’s then Dean of the College of Health, Agriculture and Natural
Sciences Professor Sungano Mharakurwa had a dream of finally eradicating Malaria from
Africa. At the time, Manicaland, where Africa University is situated, was in the grips of a
surge of the disease that disproportionately affects the continent. According to the *World Health Organization (WHO), in 2022, nearly 94% (233 million) of malaria cases and 95% (580 000) of malaria deaths were in Africa. Children under 5 constitute nearly 80% of all malaria deaths in this region.
With funding from the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) (a United States government initiative aimed at diminishing malaria deaths in African countries) and USAID, a malaria reference insectary unit was opened at Africa University, a first of its kind at any higher education institution in Zimbabwe. Now, 7 years later, the operation has grown into a major hub for the research of mosquitos in Zimbabwe, feeding into the Zimbabwe Government’s Ministry of Health and Child Care’s National Malaria Control Program (MoHCC NMCP), collecting, cataloging, and breeding mosquitoes for malaria research.
Now known as AU/ZENTO, the project reached yet another milestone when in August 2023, it became the first private institution in Zimbabwe to enter its data into the global District Health Information System (DHIS2).
Professor Sungano Mharakurwa is today the Chief of Party of AU/ZENTO and reflected on the numerous achievements of the program saying: “Our support is currently based on several agreed milestones in line with the overall mandate of ZENTO which is to provide live entomological surveillance reference material, capacity development and technical data for guiding malaria control alongside strategic planning and policy decisions of the MoHCC NMCP.
“We have consistently met our milestones and performance indicators, translating into program impact in our maiden support districts of Manicaland. On the strength of our
program delivery, we have recently been further supported to expand our technical and
geographic scope to now include regular entomological surveillance and systematic vector insecticide resistance monitoring in Manicaland and Mashonaland East provinces.”

Professor Mharakurwa remains hopeful that his work and that of his team will not only mitigate the impacts of malaria in Zimbabwe and beyond but will lead to the realization of the ultimate goal, eradication. With a vision towards increasing capacity in parasitology, Professor Mharakurwa laid bare his aspirations to take AU/ZENTO to the next level. “To ultimately conquer malaria, we need to incorporate parasitological surveillance in our partnership. We have both the passion and capabilities within our team but we need additional support specific to the parasitological domain. Towards realizing our vision, we will endeavor to show proof of concept of our capabilities and to pursue any funding opportunities for support that may be available in the near or distant future. We look to continue striving for program success and further growth to cover greater geographical areas plagued by malaria on the strength of our partnership with the PMI and MoHCC.”
In a recent visit to the AU/ZENTO program, Dr. Erik Reaves, Centres for Disease Control Malaria Advisor said that the partnership has yielded positive results with Africa University being a model of excellence in the field speaking to the sustained progress in behavioral mapping, morphological analysis and insecticide efficacy measurement. He said, “Africa University has a global impact . The milestones we have realized together are remarkable and AU/ZENTO has never failed to deliver. Our support continues and we are happy to have purchased a sequencer and other laboratory equipment to enable them to manage their workflow.”

AU/ZENTO is not only a mosquito reference unit. It is growing into an invaluable knowledge hub that trains, educates, and contributes to the global discourse on malaria, understanding vectors, and managing the proliferation of the disease by developing hard-hitting research that has already gained renown receiving a total of 10 international awards on the strength of scientific merit.

Photo Credit: Billy Tene, Medical entomologist at CRID Cameroon
Another AU/ZENTO program scientist Xuxa Gara ,who is the Deputy Insectary Manager received the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) scholarship to attend an entomological training course in taxonomy and systematics of African flies. She was selected out of 45 candidates.
Professor Mharakurwa was also a recipient of the prestigious American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) global competitive travel award to present scientific findings from his NIH-supported work on the malaria parasite at the 72nd ASTMH meeting that was held in Chicago Illinois in October 2023. The track record of excellence that has become standard in the AU/ZENTO program bears testimony to Africa University’s continued investment in Africa’s future and its sustained development through strategic partners such as PMI, USAID and the MoHCC.
*Source: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria
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