By Kemo Cham
Despite progress in prevention of malaria, there is the need for more funding, the latest report on the state of Malaria has revealed.
The 2019 World Malaria report by the World Health Organiozation (WHO) released on 4 December show that the number of pregnant women and children in sub-Saharan Africa sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets and benefiting from preventive medicine for malaria has increased significantly in recent years. It however also called for “accelerated” efforts to reduce infections and deaths in the hardest-hit countries, where progress was found to be stalling.
Some 228 million people were sickened by Malaria last year, according to the report, which also revealed that an estimated 405, 000 died of the parasitic disease. As always, most of the cases and deaths were recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report.
A major focus of the report was the impact of malaria on pregnant women. The authors note that pregnancy reduces a woman’s immunity to malaria, making her more susceptible to infection and at greater risk of illness, severe anaemia and death. They added that maternal malaria also interfered with the growth of the fetus, increasing the risk of premature delivery and low birth weight, which is a leading cause of child mortality.
“Pregnant women and children are the most vulnerable to malaria, and we cannot make progress without focusing on these two groups,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, quoted in a testament issued by the world health agency to coincide with the release of the report.
He added: “We’re seeing encouraging signs, but the burden of suffering and death caused by malaria is unacceptable, because it is largely preventable. The lack of improvement in the number of cases and deaths from malaria is deeply troubling.”
The new figures show that in 2018 an estimated 11 million pregnant women were infected with malaria in areas of moderate and high disease transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, nearly 900 000 children were born with a low birth weight, it notes.
The report also revealed that despite the encouraging signs seen in the use of preventive tools in pregnant women and children, there was no improvement in the global rate of malaria infections in the period 2014 to 2018.
The authors say inadequate funding remains a major barrier to future progress in the fight against Malaria. In 2018, for instance, a total funding for malaria control and elimination reached an estimated US$ 2.7 billion, falling far short of the US$5billion funding needed to fully implement the global strategy.
Sierra Leone is one of the high burden countries for Malaria, which is said to be among the top killer diseases of children in the country.
Copyright © 2019 Politico Online
