A woman and a child under a mosquito net. Photo/FILE
Four african countries have cut malaria deaths by half through a mix of bednet distribution, indoor spraying, improved access to treatment and advances in disease surveillance.
A World Health Organisation report last week said Rwanda, Tanzania, Eritrea, Sao Tome and Principe have reported dramatic reductions in malaria deaths between 2000 and 2007.
The World Malaria Report 2008 says significant improvements have also been observed in Madagascar and Zambia.
Six more countries that reported a fall in malaria deaths by 2006 are Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Suriname, Thailand and Vietnam.
“We know that malaria control interventions work and that we can make rapid progress towards ending malaria deaths,” said Ray Chambers, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria. “Now is the time to expand these results to all of Africa and the rest of the world.”
Progress in malaria control has accelerated dramatically since 2006, especially in the wake of the UN Secretary-General’s call for universal malaria control coverage by the end of 2010. We expect these expanded efforts to be reflected in future reports, Mr Chambers added.
According to data from national malaria control programmes, Africa had a larger increase in funding than any other region between 2004 and 2006.
The investments were led by the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and supported by bilateral and multilateral organisations and national governments.
In other regions, sources of funding were variable, but national governments provided the bulk of it.
The 2008 report, which draws upon data collected between 2004 and 2006, says the number of malaria cases in 2006 was 247 million, and that small children remain by far the most likely to die of the disease.
As of 2006, more funding resulted in accelerated access to malaria interventions, including bednets and effective medicines. But in Africa, artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), which is recommended by WHO, reached only 3 per cent of children in need.
The report finds that recent increases in malaria funding were beginning to translate into coverage of key malaria interventions, especially bednets, by 2006.
The percentage of children protected by insecticide-treated nets increased almost eightfold, from 3 per cent in 2001 to 23 per cent in 2006 in the 18 African countries where surveys were held.
Procurement of antimalarial medicines also increased between 2001 and 2006. Indoor spraying of insecticide protected about 100 million people, including 22 million in Africa.
However, much more work remains to be done; in Africa, only 125 million people were protected by bednets in 2007, while 650 million are still at risk, notes the report.
“If the availability of bednets and other key interventions can be increased, lives can be saved,” said Unicef executive director Ann M. Veneman.
US President George W Bush last week unveiled a new plan to distribute 5.2 million free bednets in Tanzania.
The nationwide programme will provide nets to protect every child between one and five. The campaign is designed to protect women and children from malaria, and to also boost local economies through investments in the manufacture and treatment of the nets.
Under the five-year $1.2 billion Presidential Malaria Programme, the US is working with 15 African countries to cut malaria-related deaths by half.
The initiative supports indoor residual spraying to kill mosquitoes, where spraying campaigns in Tanzania have reached hundreds of thousands of homes, and have protected more than one million people from mosquitos.
The initiative also supports treatment for the most vulnerable, especially pregnant women, whereby more than 2,400 Tanzanian health workers have been trained to provide specialised treatment.
PMI supports the distribution of insecticide-treated bednets. The US, the Tanzania government and other partners such as the UN Global Fund have worked to provide bednet vouchers for infants and pregnant mothers.
The initiative has been a success story in Zanzibar where malaria infections among infants have dropped from about 20 per cent to less than 1 per cent.
While 500,000 malaria patients were treated in the outpatient clinics in 2004, only 10,000 had been treated in 2007.
In 2004, about 40 per cent of patients tested positive for malaria in the Isles while in 2007, only 5 per cent tested positive.
When the blood slides were taken, 35 per cent tested positive for malaria in 2004; in 2007, only 1 per cent were positive.
