MALARIA TODAY

Malaria is both preventable and treatable. Yet approximately 1 million people die from it annually— including 3,000 children per day. Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito. Over 500 million cases of malaria are estimated to occur each year. Ninety percent of malaria deaths occur in Sub- Saharan Africa, where the most severe form of the disease prevails.

Deaths and disability (both short term and long term) from malaria have enormous social and economic costs. The disease kills more children under the age of five in Sub-Saharan Africa than any other single disease, and it is a major cause of complications, including death, in pregnant women.

Malaria can be prevented and treated, and considerable progress has been made in the past decade. New screening methods, largescale distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and the introduction of artemisinin-based combination therapies resulted in a 29 per cent decrease in malaria deaths between 2000 and 2015.

Nevertheless, this progress remains fragile. If efforts are relaxed, malaria may resurface in just one season of infection. Global funding for malaria has increased to US $ 2.5 billion a year, but that is less than half the amount needed to sustain progress against malaria. There are other challenges to the malaria response: increasing resistance to artemisinin and related drugs, as well as insecticide resistance to mosquito nets, put the response at risk in much of the world. The use of mosquito nets for purposes other than those intended also threatens efforts to prevent and control the disease.

Reducing the impact of malaria requires a multiple approach encompassing education, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.