Each year, World Malaria Day provides an opportunity to reflect on the current status of the fight against malaria. We are in the middle year of the World Malaria Day theme of “Invest in the Future. Defeat Malaria," which is set to last until 2015. Funding for malaria control and prevention, as with all international public health endeavors, has always been perceived as a critical issue, but … [Read more...]
Malaria Deaths
QUESTION How many people have died from malaria since 1966? ANSWER Accurate counts of the number of people who die from malaria are notoriously hard to make, since often the infection goes diagnosed, or the cause of death is not reported. However, the World Health Organization has estimated that until recently, about 1 million died each year from malaria. So, without taking into account … [Read more...]
Organizations Against Malaria
QUESTION What is a good organization that helps stop malaria? ANSWER There are many organizations that work very hard to control malaria. The most well known are those that design policies and implement projects to control malaria on the ground, in places where the disease is most deadly. These include multilateral international organizations such as UNICEF and the World Health … [Read more...]
Malaria in Kitwe Zambia
QUESTION Is it dangerous for my children two years old in Kitwe? ANSWER Kitwe has been part of the Roll Back Malaria campaign to control malaria in Zambia—the program has been very successful, reducing deaths by malaria by over 65% nationwide. However, there still is a risk of contracting malaria in most parts of the country, and so preventative measures should be taken when … [Read more...]
Malaria In Africa
QUESTION What factors cause Africans to get this disease? ANSWER The highest number of malaria cases every year occur in Africa, not because of anything specifically due to the people living there (in fact, they may be better protected against malaria than most—I will come onto this later) but because malaria transmission is very high in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa and … [Read more...]
Malaria in Africa
QUESTION What is the current problem for malaria in Africa? ANSWER Malaria is a particularly severe problem in Africa due to a number of reasons. First of all, transmission in many parts of Africa occurs year round, due to favourable conditions for the development of the mosquitoes malaria requires as its vector. Secondly, the dominant and most widespread species of malaria in Africa … [Read more...]
Side Effects of Treatment
QUESTION What are the probable side effects / reaction of "Artemether with Lumefantrine" to a 4.5 years, 5ml syrup, 2 doses - 0 & 8 hours? ANSWER Artermeter with Lumefantrine is often sold under the brand name "Coartem" and is widely distributed in areas of high P. falciparum prevalence, and particularly where known resistance to chloroquine occurs. Coartem is also the drug of … [Read more...]
Higher Research Funding Leads to 4x Rise in New Anti-Malaria Product Pipeline
A new analysis of progress in the global fight against malaria finds a four-fold increase in annual funding for malaria research and development (R&D) in just 16 years—increasing from US$121 million in 1993 to US$612 million in 2009, with a particularly rapid increase since 2004. The funding has generated the strongest pipeline of malaria control and prevention products in history. The … [Read more...]
Equatorial Guinea Reduces Malaria in Children by 57% in Four Years
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea has decreased the prevalence of the malaria parasite in children by 57% in just four years and has increased the number of children protected by bed nets or indoor spraying of insecticides from 4% to 95% in that same period, according to a report by Roll Back Malaria. Research carried out on the Island of Bioko, funded by the government of Equatorial Guinea and … [Read more...]
EDITORIAL – Reflections on World Malaria Day 2011
How far have we come in the last four years? Four years ago, it was estimated that a child died every 30 seconds from malaria, and that more than a million people each year were killed by this devastating and debilitating disease. Four years ago, the malaria advocacy partnership Roll Back Malaria organized the first World Malaria Day, and published the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP), which … [Read more...]