HARARE, May 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Malaria has killed 329 people in Zimbabwe since the beginning of this year, according to the malaria statistics issued by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare on Monday.

    The statistics showed that a total of 267,396 reported malaria cases, 329 deaths were recorded from January to April of this year.

    This figure is a massive reduction from the 567 deaths and 300,021 cases reported during the same period last year.

    Minister of Health and Child Welfare David Parirenyatwa said, for a long time people were saying they want him to show them some proof of how effective the government's malaria control program is, especially since the use of the so-called controversial DDT.

    "While I am still not happy at the fact that malaria is still killing our people, the reduction in the number of deaths this year makes me very optimistic. If we scale up our control programs, we might actually win this war," he said.

    The ministry said it would intensify interventions to maintain the current trend of declining deaths. Enditem