By; MATTHEW UKACHUNWA, Lagos
Countries in Africa have been called to make investments and innovations that will bring new vector control approaches, diagnostics, antimalarial medicines and other tools to speed the pace of progress against malaria.
WHO made the call in commemoration of year 2022 World Malaria Day on 25th April.
The theme of this year’s World Malaria Day is: “Harness Innovation to Reduce the Malaria Disease Burden and Save Lives.”
“Despite steady advances in lowering the global burden of malaria between 2000 and 2015, progress has slowed or stalled in recent years, particularly in high burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Urgent and concerted action is needed to set the world back on a trajectory toward achieving the 2030 targets of the WHO global malaria strategy,” the international authority on public health expantiated.
It stressed that malaria is a preventable and treatable disease that continues to have a devastating impact on the health and livelihood of people around the world.
According to WHO, in year 2020, there were an estimated 241 million new cases of malaria and 627 000 malaria-related deaths in 85 countries.
WHO pointed out that more than two thirds of deaths were among children under the age of 5 living in the WHO African Region.
