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Head-on with number one killer disease
2006-12-29 10:11:33
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz
Malaria, one of the world’s most common and serious tropical diseases, causes at least one million deaths every year—the majority of which occur in the most resource-poor countries.
More than half of the world’s population is at risk of acquiring malaria and the proportion increases each year because of deteriorating health systems, growing drug and insecticide resistance, climate change, natural disasters and armed conflict.
Statistics on the state of the pandemic show that at least 300 million acute cases of malaria occur worldwide each year, resulting in more than one million deaths annually—more than 80 per cent of which are estimated to occur in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly among children under five years of age.
Recent estimates of the global burden of malaria are even higher, with one study estimating that 515 million cases of clinical malaria occurred in 2002.
Overall, malaria accounts for 10 per cent of Africa’s disease burden, and it is estimated that malaria costs the continent more than $12 billion annually.
Although Africa is hardest hit, it is estimated that more than one-third of clinical malaria cases occur in Asia and 3 per cent occur in the Americas.
The estimated cost to effectively control malaria in the 82 countries with the highest burden is about $3.2 billion annually.
Young children and pregnant women are at the highest risk of malaria infection and mortality.
Many children experience initial malaria infection during their first two years of life, when they have not yet developed sufficient immunity, making these early years particularly dangerous.
Malaria accounts for one in 10 deaths among children in developing countries.
Pregnancy causes women to have reduced immunity to malaria, making them more susceptible to malaria infection and increasing their risk of illness, severe anemia and death.
Approximately 60 per cent of all cases of malaria occur among the poorest 20 per cent of the world’s population.
In Tanzania each year, over 16 million people are infected, with 100,000 dying.
Around 40,000 of those who lose their lives are children, with a child dying after every 5 minutes.
Although there are several different treatments for malaria, widespread resistance to conventional anti-malarial drugs has contributed to increasing morbidity and mortality.
Multi-drug-resistant malaria is now prevalent in many parts of the world, with the highest rate of drug resistance in Southeast Asia.
The inappropriate use of anti-malarial drugs has contributed to the current situation.
As a response to increasing levels of anti-malarial resistance, the World Health Organization (WHO) now recommends that all countries experiencing malaria cases that are resistant to conventional therapies use combination therapies.
Tanzania has been receiving assistance from the Global Fund to curb AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The assistance normally is used to fight malaria, including the purchase of Novartis’ artemisinin-based combination.
Part of the funding is being used to scale up the national response to the HIV/Aids epidemic, purchase condoms, and provide treatment and support for children affected by the disease.
Three nongovernmental organizations also benefit from the grant—the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) Tanzania to provide HIV/Aids care and treatment, PACT Tanzania to provide support for at-risk children and those who have lost one or both parents to the disease and PSI to purchase condoms).
On December 14, this year, President George W. Bush and his wife Laura hosted the first-ever White House Summit on Malaria that was held In Washington D.C. The White House Summit on Malaria brought together international experts, corporations and foundations, African civic leaders and voluntary, faith-based and non-profit organizations.
The Summit’s goals were to raise awareness of malaria and to mobilize a grassroots effort to save millions of lives in Africa.
One American with just $10 can help save a life in Africa.
A school, a church, or a team can help save a village.
Together, Americans can help protect an entire continent.
President Bush announced the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) in June 2005.
A five-year, $1.2 billion program, PMI challenges the private sector to join the U.S. government in combating malaria in 15 of the hardest-hit African countries.
PMI’s goal is to cut malaria’s mortality rate by 50 percent in these target countries, freeing these African nations and their citizens from the grip of debilitating disease.
Through Partnerships Working In The First Three Target Countries – Angola , Tanzania And Uganda – aid from the American People has already reached about six million Africans.
In 2007, 30 million more will receive life-saving medicines, sprays, and nets as the program expands.
Other countries targeted, include Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal.
The PMI has helped deliver bed nets In Zanzibar in Tanzania where Malaria is the leading cause of death.
In early 2006, PMI and the Global Fund collaborated to distribute more than 230,000 insecticide-treated bed nets to the people of Zanzibar.
Zanzibar has seen a startling decrease in its reported malaria cases and quicker recovery for those infected.
The number of confirmed malaria cases on Pemba Island dropped for 87 per cent from January to September, this year to 1,570 down from 12,531 over the same period last year, according to local health reports.
In Zanzibar, malaria has greatly been reduced among children under age five after new U. S and other assistance began, according to local health officials.
The success in Zanzibar shows that malaria can be controlled in larger regions.
Canada is yet another country assisting the government of Tanzania to curb the number one killer disease in the country since 1994, when the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) joined with the WHO in funding the first large-scale trials testing the effectiveness of treated bed nets.
President of the IDRC Maureen O’Neil notes the successful trials led to the adoption of bed nets, as the main pillar of Africa’s malaria prevention strategy beginning in 2000.
Canadian-funded initiatives in Tanzania provide clear evidence that dealing effectively with Malaria can drastically reduce death rates.
For example, a package of health reforms known as the Tanzania Essential Health Interventions Project (TEHIP) refocused district health funding on preventing and treating key health threats such, as malaria — primarily through the distribution of bed nets and provision of anti-malarial drugs.
The astonishing result of these measures was a more than 40 per cent decline in child mortality in the districts where they were implemented.
Today, Tanzania is developing a ’culture’ of bed net use. While treated bed nets were once rare, in 2004 alone Tanzanians purchased more than 2.3 million of them.
Shown to reduce the risk of malaria by 50 per cent, these treated nets are now being distributed free of charge to vulnerable pregnant women through a voucher system.
”Such measures deserve increased international support and should be extended to more countries where malaria poses a public health risk.
Still largely unrecognized, as one of the major killers of our time, malaria is a disease — so experience shows — that can be controlled through the application of low-cost and mostly low-tech solutions,” says O’Neil.
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