Global fight on malaria stalled: WHO

Global fight on malaria stalled: WHO

News:

1. As per the WHO World Malaria Report 2018, India is the only high-burden country moving in a positive direction, with Odisha emerging as the best performing state in its fight against Malaria.

Important Facts:

2. Findings of the report:

• The report reveals a plateauing trend in the number of people affected by malaria globally, eg. in 2017, there were an estimated 219 million cases of malaria compared to 217 million in 2016.
• But in the previous years, the number of people contracting malaria globally had seen steadily falling, from 239 million in 2010 to 214 million in 2015.
• Foreign funding to some of the most affected countries has declined, in certain instances by more than 20 percent for every individual at risk of contracting the disease.
• Malaria, which is spread to people through the bites of infected female mosquitoes, occurs in 91 countries but about 90% of the cases and deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa.
• A considerable proportion of people at risk of infection are not being protected, including pregnant women and children in Africa.
• The disease killed more than 4 lakh people last year, the majority of them children under five in Africa.
• Another constraint in fighting malaria has been mosquitoes building up resistance to some insecticides.
• According to the WHO, approximately 70 per cent of the world’s malaria burden is concentrated in 11 countries — 10 in sub-Saharan Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania) and India.
• Most malaria cases reported last year were in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.
• Five countries accounted for nearly half of the cases: Nigeria (25 percent), DR Congo (11 percent), Mozambique (five percent), and India and Uganda with four percent each.
• However, the number of countries nearing continuous elimination grew to 46 in 2017 from 37 in 2010 including countries such as Ethiopia, India, Pakistan and Rwanda recording “substantial” declines in malaria cases.
• China and El Salvador are two countries where malaria had long been endemic with no local transmission of malaria reported in 2017,” it noted.
• As per the WHO, Paraguay in 2018 became the first country in American continent to receive this status in 45 years.

3. India’s Case:

• India has been identified as the top country marking maximum progress in reducing malaria cases among the 11 highest burden countries, registering a 24 per cent decrease in 2017 compared to 2016, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
• As per the WHO World Malaria Report 2018, India is the only high-burden country moving in a positive direction, with Odisha emerging as the best performing state in its fight against Malaria.
• However, the report suggests that 1.25 billion Indians still remain at the risk of getting diagnosed with malaria.

4. Addressing the problem:

• WHO said it was embarking on new ways to scale up the battle against one of the world’s deadliest diseases.
• The plan includes country-led projects to “jump start aggressive” control efforts to curb the parasitic disease and Mozambique is one of the target countries.