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WHO: Malaria prevention progresses, more funding needed
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Global efforts to control and eliminate malaria have saved about 3.3 million lives since 2000, according to a report published by WHO.
Mortality rates have decreased by 45% globally and 49% in Africa due to an increase in political commitment and funding for the prevention of malaria. Since 2000, malaria cases have decreased 29% globally and 31% in Africa. However, more progress is crucial to end the fight against malaria.
There were an estimated 207 million cases of malaria in 2012, which resulted in about 627,000 deaths. An estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk for malaria, most of who reside in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Despite a strong increase in support from 2005 to 2010, malaria prevention efforts have wavered. According to the report, there has been a lack of funds to provide insecticide-treated bed nets in countries where malaria transmission is constant. Progress also is threatened by parasite resistance to artemisinin and mosquito resistance to insecticides.
However, diagnostic testing has increased from 44% in 2010 to 64% in 2012. Besides testing, access to artemisinin-based combination therapies has increased. In 2012, 331 million therapies were delivered vs. 76 million in 2006.“We can get very far with what we’re doing today, but we need to continue to push the envelope.
We need new tools out there, new drugs, new insecticides, and new approaches to delivering the tools we have today if we want to continue to be successful. And to do that, ultimately, we need political will at every level,” Robert Newman, MD, MPH, director of WHO’s global malaria program, said during a press conference. “That will need to happen throughout the entire global community, all the way down to affected communities who need to demand their rights to these live-saving services.”
International funding has increased from about $100 million in 2000 to $2 billion in 2012. Combined with domestic funding, a total of $2.5 billion funded malaria efforts in 2012, less than half of the recommended $5.1 billion needed each year to achieve universal access to interventions.
“The vote of confidence shown by donors last week at the replenishment conference for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is testimony to the success of global partnership. But we must fill the annual gap of $2.6 billion to achieve universal coverage and prevent malaria deaths,” Fatoumata Nafo-Traorè, MD, executive director of WHO’s Roll Back Malaria partnership, said during the conference. “This is our historic opportunity to defeat malaria.”