ach year malaria kills 1-million people worldwide, 80% of which in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the large majority of the victims are children under the age of 5, as indicated in the first joint World Malaria Report 2005 of the WHO (World Health
Organization) and UNICEF (United Nations Child Fund), presented yesterday in three simultaneous events
organized in New York, Geneva and Cairo.
“At present malaria remains the infectious disease that takes more lives of children in Africa than any other—three times as many as HIV infection,” said Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF. “If we are going to dramatically reduce child deaths in the next decade, we need to put more focus on combating malaria”.
Based on data relative to the end of 2004, it is estimated that 350–500 million clinical malaria episodes occur annually in 170 nations; some 3.2-billion live in areas at risk of malaria transmission. To confront the epidemic in the 82 nations with the highest spread of malaria $3.2-billion are needed each year, $2-billion of which just for Africa. The WHO-UNICEF underline that this sum is five times higher than the $600-million available this year.
At present malaria remains the infectious disease that takes more lives of children in Africa than any other—three times as many as HIV infection. If we are going to dramatically reduce child deaths in the next decade, we need to put more focus on combating malaria
In 2000 in Abuja (Nigeria) Africa had launched a plan aimed at guaranteeing by 2005 the distribution of efficient drugs and mosquito nets with insecticide to 60% of the population exposed to malaria and preventive treatment to 60% of pregnant women. Five years later, only Eritrea managed to respect the commitment, though results were also achieved in five Zambian districts, where at least 80% of the children under the age of five today can sleep protected.
Also in Togo, thanks to an analogous campaign started in 2004, the total number of families that own at least one saturated mosquito net has risen from 8% to 62%. In face of the growing resistance of the malaria mosquito to traditional drugs, 23 African nations have decided to adopt the Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT), ten to twenty times more expensive in respect to clorochine, but currently only 9 nations are effectively able to apply the therapy.
The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) initiative, launched by the World Bank in 1998 and WHO and UNICEF partners, aims to reduce the malaria mortality rate by 2010: according to the prestigious British The Lancet medical magazine, it is an impossible objective to reach.
(From MISNA)