Malaria Kills A Child Every Minute, Says WHO

•Kids suffering from malaria in hospital

•Kids suffering from malaria in hospital

Eromosele Ebhomele

As the world prepares for the annual World Malaria Day Friday, the World Health Organisation, WHO, says malaria is still a major health challenge in Nigeria and other African countries as it kills an average of a child every minute.

It announced that 40 per cent of global malaria deaths occur in just two countries: Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo just as it fixed 627,000 as a conservative figure of recorded deaths and 207 million estimated cases of malaria especially in Africa in 2012.

Though malaria is an entirely preventable and treatable mosquito-borne illness, WHO said in 2013, 97 countries had ongoing malaria transmission with an estimated 3.4 billion people at risk of malaria, of whom 1.2 billion are at high risk.

•Kids suffering from malaria in hospital
•Kids suffering from malaria in hospital

For example, in 2012, WHO said malaria killed an estimated 482,000 children under five years of age.

“That is 1,300 children every day, or one child almost every minute. There were an estimated 207 million cases of malaria in 2012 (uncertainty range: 135 – 287 million) and an estimated 627,000 deaths (uncertainty range: 473 000 – 789 000). And 90 percent of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa,” WHO said in a statement, adding that the occasion of this year’s World Malaria Day would be used to focus on helping countries move towards malaria elimination.

The UN health agency further disclosed that between 2000 and 2012, the scale-up of interventions helped to reduce malaria incidence rates by 25 percent globally, and by 31 percent in the WHO African region.

Related News

“Between 2000 and 2012, a scale-up of malaria interventions saved an estimated 3.3 million lives. Ninety percent, or three million of these are in the under-five age group in sub-Saharan Africa,” it said.

It said since 2000, many countries have declared malaria elimination as a national goal and that with the theme for the 2013-2015 campaign being ‘Invest in the future. Defeat Malaria’, the World Malaria Day “is an occasion to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment to support countries in their efforts to control and eliminate this deadly disease.”

WHO  said international disbursements for malaria control rose from $100 million in 2000 to $1.94 billion in 2012 and $1.97 billion in 2013, but that more needed to be done by national governments as the currently available funding is far below the resources required to reach universal coverage of interventions. It said an estimated $5.1 billion is needed every year for this purpose.

The WHO said 52 countries were making efforts to reduce malaria rates by 75 percent, in line with World Health Assembly and Roll Back Malaria targets for 2015, but lamented that these 52 countries only accounted for four percent or eight million of the total estimated malaria cases.

“International targets for reducing malaria cases and deaths will not be attained unless considerable progress is made in the 18 most affected countries, which account for an estimated 80 percent of malaria cases,” WHO said.

The agency also said, apart from insecticide-treated nets, it currently recommends chloroquine for the treatment of ‘P. vivax’ malaria where the drug remains effective and that for parasite resistance to chloroquine which has been confirmed in 10 countries so far, it recommends ACTs for the treatment.

Load more