WHO drive for increased efforts to prevent malaria

An event in Nairobi on the eve of World Malaria Day, sees the World Health Organization push for increased efforts to save lives through malaria prevention.

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Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 90% of global malaria cases. Since 2001, more than 660 million cases were prevented, of which 69% of cases were prevented through control tools such as insecticide-treated nets.

For the high-risk group comprising of pregnant women, infants, and children under the age of five, WHO has recommended a package of established prevention approaches, consisting of insecticide treated nets, spraying indoor walls with insecticides, and medicines together with diagnosis and treatment.

"WHO-recommended tools have made a measurable difference in the global malaria fight," said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. "But we need a much bigger push for prevention – especially in Africa, which bears the greatest burden of malaria."

The latest report has highlighted a major gap in prevention coverage, predominantly in the areas that lies south of the Sahara in Africa. As of 2015, approximately 43% of the population was at risk of contracting malaria in regions that were not protected by a net or indoor insecticide spraying. 69% of pregnant women across 20 African countries did not have access to the recommended treatment.

Countries have adopted some targeted prevention approaches; however, the implementation is slow. Sierra Leone is the only place where the preventive measure for infants—secure, cost-effective and well accepted by health workers and communities—is implemented.

WHO has recommended Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) across Sahel, where most malaria incidences and deaths among children happen during the rainy season. The preventive therapy has proved to reduce the new cases of severe malaria in young children by approximately 75%, and has been put into practice in 10 African countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo have adopted WHO’s SMC and put into practice as of 2015.

The World Malaria Report 2016 has revealed a decreasing trend between the period 2010 and 2015. The  rate of new malaria cases and death rates decreased by 21% and 29% globally and in sub-Saharan Africa, the case incidence and death rates dropped by 21% and 31%, respectively.

Although other regions have made considerable increases in their malaria responses, the disease remains a major health threat for the people. The year 2015 reported 429,000 malaria deaths, with one child dying every 2 minutes, and more than 200 million new cases were reported globally.

Any death from malaria – a preventable and treatable disease – is simply unacceptable. Today we are urging countries and partners to accelerate the pace of action, especially in low-income countries with a high malaria burden."

Dr Pedro Alonso, Director of WHO’s Global Malaria Programme

In 2015, 91 countries stated ongoing malaria transmission and they are all working to minimize the suffering caused by malaria by deploying and using preventive, diagnostic, and treatment tools recommended by WHO.

WHO’s Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030, a 15-year proposal for all countries working to control and eradicate malaria was approved by the World Health Assembly in May 2015. The plan has set a goal for 2030 with an aim to decrease malaria case incidence and mortality rates  by 90%, eradicate malaria in at least 35 countries, and avoid re-exposure of malaria in all countries that are certified as malaria-free.

Less than half of these 91 countries problemed with malaria are  on track to meet the interim targets for 2020.

WHO published the report “Eliminating Malaria” in 2016, identifying 21 potential countries that may at least for 1 year report zero indigenous cases of malaria, by the year 2020.

WHO has granted certification to countries of zero locally acquired cases of malaria for a minimum of 3 consecutive years. The WHO Director-General certified the United Arab Emirates in the year 2007, Morocco & Turkmenistan in 2010, Armenia in 2011, Maldives in 2015, Sri Lanka, and Kyrgyzstan in 2016 for having eradicated malaria.

WHO classified the European region as Autochthonous (Indigenous) for malaria transmission in 2015. This region is maintaining a malaria-free status from 2016 and the countries at threat of introducing malaria again are increasing their efforts to guard their people against the threat of malaria reintroduction.

Advancement in technology, innovating new tools, as well as new vector control involvement and perhaps a vaccine will shape future progress in the fight against malaria.

Today, the WHO African region will declare the three countries that will participate in the WHO coordinated malaria vaccine pilot program in selected areas, commencing from 2018.The vaccine, to protect young children in Africa will be evaluated in the pilot study as a complementary tool to control malaria. The injectable vaccine can be potentially included in the core package of the WHO recommended measures for preventing, diagnosing, and treating malaria.

The Week of 24–30 April is celebrated as World Immunization Week and World Malaria Day falls during this period. There is widespread usage of vaccines in protecting people against 26 diseases, and an estimated 2–3 million deaths are prevented by the vaccines annually.