World Malaria Day was marked on Thursday across the world including Pakistan with the theme “Invest in the future: defeat malaria”.
Malaria affects 200 million people every year. According to UNICEF’s estimates, malaria is endemic to 107 countries and kills one million people globally each year. Almost half of the world’s population lives in the areas where malaria is transmitted. Out of one million, about 800,000 deaths take place in the sub-Saharan Africa among the children below the age of five.
According to a private TV channel, malaria causes high rates of miscarriage among pregnant women and causes low birth weight, anaemia, growth retardation, and potentially long term cognitive and developmental impairments among newborn children. The disease further proves fatal for HIV patients, since they are more prone to developing infections due to the weak immune system.
Despite the fact that malaria is one of the leading causes of death in the underdeveloped world, it is a preventable and curable disease. Over the last decade, the world has witnessed a major progress in the fight against malaria. Deaths caused by malaria have been cut by one third in Africa. Out of Africa, the number of cases has decreased by 50 percent in 35 countries that were severally affected with this disease. Resultantly, the child mortality rate has fallen by about 20 percent in the countries where malaria control interventions have been improved significantly.
Since 2000, mortality rate related to malaria has decreased by more than 25 percent in 50 countries out of 99 countries where transmission of the disease is going on. These countries are expected to reach the target, set by the World Health Assembly, of reducing more than 75 percent of cases by 2015.
World Malaria Day was instituted by World Health Organisation (WHO) member states during the World Health Assembly of 2007. The day is celebrated every year on April 25 to encourage efforts being made for stopping the spread of malaria. It is an occasion to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment for malaria prevention and control. The day is also an opportunity for the countries to learn from each other’s experience.
