Progress in the fight against malaria

Dec 16th, 2009 9:27 AM UTC
By Rena Pacheco-Theard

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that greater financial support is helping to achieve significant progress in the fight against malaria, noting that over one third of endemic countries have reported more than a 50 percent decline in malaria cases since 2000.

Yesterday, the WHO released its 2009 World Malaria Report, providing the most recent information on the status of the malaria epidemic and highlighting progress toward global malaria targets.

Funding to combat malaria has jumped from $0.3 billion in 2003 to $1.7 billion in 2007. This surge in resources has contributed to impressive progress on the ground: 140 million long-lasting insecticidal nets were delivered to high-burden African countries from 2006 to 2008, use of effective malaria medicine is on the rise compared to 2006, and 31 percent of African households were estimated to own at least one insecticide-treated net in 2008 compared to 17 percent in 2006.

Significant reduction in child malaria deaths could help some African countries, like Sao Tome and Principe, Zanzibar and Zambia, to reach the 2015 MDG goal of a two-thirds reduction in child mortality.

However, this progress is not enough. Africa’s 31 percent insecticide-treated net coverage is still well below the World Health Assembly (WHA) target of 80 percent household coverage by 2010, and only 15 percent of children with a fever in malaria-endemic country received malaria medicines, compared to the WHO’s target of 80 percent. The report also notes that $5 billion will be required annually until 2015 to scale-up and sustain global malaria control and elimination, and funding needs to give greater attention to larger endemic countries rather than smaller countries with lower disease burdens.

Malaria still claims the lives of 863,000 people every year (Africa accounts for 89 percent of these deaths), but this number is down from 881,000 in 2006. The drop is primarily attributed to fewer deaths in Africa among children under 5.

To learn more, read the full report here.

TAGS: Malaria, Policy News