WHO calls for additional malaria funding as deaths stay stubbornly high
The World Health Organization made a plea for increased financing on Thursday to tackle malaria, which continues to take the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, predominantly in Africa, annually.
In a recent report, the UN health organization commended the fact that malaria cases and fatalities, which surged in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic hindered prevention and treatment initiatives, remained steady at a stubbornly elevated level in 2017.
However, it also highlighted significant concerns that still require attention, including the scarcity of donor support, the possible effects of climate change, and adaptations in the malaria-causing parasite that complicate treatment.
It stressed that funding needs to more than double, indicating that the world is currently “off track” to achieve its goal of decreasing malaria cases and fatalities by 90% by 2030.
“We confront numerous challenges, yet there are ample reasons for optimism,” WHO leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus remarked in a statement.
“By bolstering the response, identifying and mitigating risks, fostering resilience, and expediting research, there is ample cause to envision a malaria-free future.”
Africa, which constitutes 96% of global malaria deaths, is where the stakes are particularly high.
The Covid-19 outbreak has intensified several obstacles in the battle against malaria.
Global malaria fatalities fell dramatically between 2000 and 2019, dropping to 568,000, but abruptly rose by 10% to 625,000 in 2020, the initial year of the pandemic, as per the report.
Despite the ongoing repercussions of the pandemic, there were 619,000 fewer malaria-related deaths last year.
Conversely, the number of malaria cases rose last year, from 245 million in 2020 to 247 million, although this increase was less than the 13 million rise recorded the previous year.
Despite challenges related to supply chains and logistics, numerous countries managed to persist with and even enhance malaria testing and treatment during the pandemic, receiving commendation from the WHO.
Insecticide-treated bed nets, the primary vector control measure in most countries with endemic malaria, were distributed by nations in unprecedented quantities in 2020 and sustained high distribution levels from the year before.
Distribution of rapid diagnostic tests to healthcare institutions in malaria-affected countries reached an all-time high in 2020, totaling 223 million last year, approximately the same amount as prior to the pandemic.
The first malaria vaccine, RTS, S, which has already been administered to over a million children and will be broadly accessible next year, stands among the hopeful advancements for the future.
It is still premature to assess how many lives the vaccine will safeguard, according to Abdisalan Noor of the WHO’s Global Malaria Programme.
But “we do anticipate a significant impact on severe cases and mortality,” he informed reporters.
While acknowledging the progress made, the WHO underlined that substantial challenges remain, including rising mosquito resistance to insecticides, inadequate numbers of bed nets, and the increasing spread of parasite-carrying mosquitoes.
“Malaria is not a condition that remains static,” stated Peter Sands, head of the Global Fund, which provides 63 percent of all international financing for malaria initiatives.
“The parasites evolve to resist treatments, and mosquitoes adapt to evade insecticides or bite their victims earlier in the day,” he stated in a declaration.
“Climate change is expanding the geographical reach of malaria into areas previously deemed safe.”
According to the WHO and the Global Fund, there exists a massive funding shortfall that must be addressed to tackle these challenges.
The price of combating malaria globally in 2017 was $3.5 billion.
Although this was an improvement from the previous two years, the WHO reported that it still fell significantly short of the $7.3 billion estimated as necessary globally to keep the international effort focused on eradicating the disease.
