Ranjan K Baruah
One of the goals in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to fight back diseases like malaria. But the fact is that this goal is yet to be achieved as lots have to be done to fight back malaria. Whether we believe or not but the fact is that Malaria still kills an estimated 627 000 people every year, mainly children under 5 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2013, 97 countries had on-going malaria transmission. Every year, more than 200 million cases occur; most of these cases are never tested or registered. Emerging drug and insecticide resistance threaten to reverse recent gains. There is urgency to fund more to defeat malaria. Global efforts to control and eliminate malaria have saved an estimated 3.3 million lives since 2000, reducing malaria mortality rates by 42% globally and 49% in Africa.
The large majority of the 3.3 million lives saved between 2000 and 2012 were in the 10 countries with the highest malaria burden, and among children aged less than 5 years – the group most affected by the disease. Over the same period, malaria mortality rates in children in Africa were reduced by an estimated 54%. In 2012, there were an estimated 207 million cases of malaria (uncertainty interval: 135 – 287 million), which caused approximately 627 000 malaria deaths (uncertainty interval 473 000 – 789 000). An estimated 3.4 billion people continue to be at risk of malaria, mostly in Africa and south-east Asia. Around 80% of malaria cases occur in Africa.
Most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every minute from malaria. Malaria mortality rates among children in Africa have been reduced by an estimated 54% since 2000. Malaria is transmitted exclusively through the bites of Anopheles mosquitoes. The intensity of transmission depends on factors related to the parasite, the vector, the human host, and the environment.
52 countries are on track to reduce their malaria case incidence rates by 75%, in line with World Health Assembly and Roll Back Malaria targets for 2015. These 52 countries only account for 4% (8 million) of the total estimated malaria cases. 59 countries are on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal target of reversing the incidence of malaria (between 2000 and 2015). WHO is currently developing a global technical strategy for malaria control and elimination for the 2016-2025 period.
World Malaria Day was instituted by World Health Organisation (WHO) Member States during the World Health Assembly of 2007. It is an occasion to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment for malaria prevention and control. World Malaria Day which is observed on 25th April is an occasion to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment to control and eliminate this deadly disease. The theme for the 2013–2015 campaign is "Invest in the future. Defeat malaria." International funding for malaria control increased from less than US$ 100 million in 2000 to almost US$ 2 billion in 2012. Domestic funding stood at around US$ 0.5 billion in the same year, bringing the total international and domestic funding committed to malaria control to US$ 2.5 billion in 2012 – less than half the US$ 5.1 billion needed each year to achieve universal access to interventions.
Malaria has been a major public health problem in India. Intermittent fever, with high incidence during the rainy season, coinciding with agriculture, sowing and harvesting, was first recognized by Romans and Greeks who associated it with swampy areas. They postulated that intermittent fevers were due to the 'bad odour' coming from the marshy areas and thus gave the name 'malaria' ('mal'=bad + 'air') to intermittent fevers. In spite of the fact that today the causative organism is known, the name has stuck to this disease. Malaria is a public health problem in several parts of the country. About 95% population in the country resides in malaria endemic areas and 80% of malaria reported in the country is confined to areas consisting 20% of population residing in tribal, hilly, difficult and inaccessible areas.
In India, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme is specially there to manage the problem related to malaria. There National Malaria Control Programme under it. Apart from rural and hilly areas there is also intervention of in the urban areas as some of the urban areas have also reported death due to malaria. Experts and scientist related to climate change have reported that due to climate change vector borne diseases like malaria shall be increased in the north eastern region of the country. These brings challenge to people associated with the control of the disease and at the same time bring more responsibility to civil society to have collective fight to roll back malaria from the region.
(With Inputs from WHO/NVBDCP)
(With Inputs from WHO/NVBDCP)
