By Gom Mirian
The World Health Organization, WHO, Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, says the African region has recorded 234 million malaria cases and 593 000 deaths in 2021, thus bearing the heaviest burden of over 95% of cases and 96% of deaths globally.
Dr. Moeti said this in her message to Mark the 16th World Malaria Day on Tuesday. According to her, the region has continued to be hardest hit by this deadly disease partly because too many people do not have access to preventive and curative interventions.
She added that nearly 30% of the population in most African countries cannot access essential health services, and most people face unacceptably high expenditures on health care.
She said: “Significant inequities affect the most vulnerable, young children and women, whereas about 80% of malaria cases and deaths occur in children under five.
“To reverse these trends and accelerate progress, we must rethink and revitalize our strategies by investing, innovating and implementing smartly:
“In 2021, endemic countries and partners mobilized only 50% of the estimated US$ 7.3 billion required globally to stay on track to defeat malaria. We, therefore, call on our Member States to keep malaria high on their agendas as they allocate resources to health.
“On innovation, there is a great need to increase the number and efficacy of control tools and strategies so that interventions can have a greater impact. In this light, WHO recently prequalified new dual active ingredient insecticide-treated nets and several insecticides for indoor residual spraying.
“The new RTS,S vaccine deployment has been extended beyond the three initial countries and several other innovative products are in the pipeline. New tools and strategies are needed to address the threats of drug resistance, insecticide resistance, and new invasive vectors compromising gains in vector control.
“we recently launched two strategies to support countries in the African continent as they work to build a more resilient response to malaria: (1) A strategy to curb antimalarial drug resistance and (2) an initiative to stop the spread of the new invasive Anopheles stephensi malaria vector – a dangerous vector that breeds in urban areas and has the potential of increasing transmission.
“Meanwhile, a robust research and development pipeline is set to bring a new generation of malaria control tools that could help accelerate progress towards global targets,” said Moeti.
