The World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners has inaugurated a new country-led response to scale up prevention, treatment and increased investment to protect vulnerable people from Malaria.
A statement issued by Ms Charity Warigon of the WHO African Regional Office to newsmen in Abuja said the new response programme was aimed at reducing malaria related deaths.
The statement said World Malaria Report 2018 shows that reductions in malaria cases have stalled after several years of decline globally.
It said for the second consecutive year, the annual report produced by WHO reveals a plateauing in numbers of people affected by malaria globally.
It said that in 2017, there were an estimated 219 million cases of malaria, compared to 217 million the year before.
The statement added that in the years prior, the number of people contracting malaria globally had been steadily falling, from 239 million in 2010 to 214 million in 2015.
It quoted Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, as saying that nobody should die from malaria.
He said the world faces a new reality; “as progress stagnates, we are at risk of squandering years of toil, investment and success in reducing the number of people suffering from the disease.
“We recognise we have to do something different – now.
“So today we are launching a country-focused and -led plan to take comprehensive action against malaria by making our work more effective where it counts most – at local level.”
According to the statement, in 2017, approximately 70 per cent of all malaria cases (151 million) and deaths (274,000) were concentrated in 11 countries and 10 of the 11 countries were in Africa.
“The countries are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania and India.
“There were 3.5 million more malaria cases reported in these 10 African countries in 2017 compared to the previous year, while India, however, showed progress in reducing its disease burden,’’ it said.
The statement said in spite of marginal increases in recent years in the distribution and use of insecticide-treated bed nets in sub-Saharan Africa the report highlights major coverage gaps.
It added that in 2017, an estimated half of at-risk people in Africa did not sleep under a treated net.
“Fewer homes are being protected by indoor residual spraying than before, and access to preventive therapies that protect pregnant women and children from malaria remains too low,’’ the statement said.
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