Before World Malaria Day on Friday, the United Nations Health Agency, which calls for a renewal of efforts at all levels – from global policy to community action – to accelerate progress towards elimination.
Malaria is distributed by certain types of mosquitoes and is mainly found in tropical countries. Symptoms – which can be light or fatal – include fever, chills and headaches, convulsions and the difficulty of breathing.
Africa continues to carry a disproportionate part of the world burden of malaria. In 2023, around 94% of all cases and 95% of deaths took place in the region. Most deaths, 76%, were among children under the age of five.
Eye on elimination
Which recalled that in the late 1990s, world leaders adopted effective policies that led to the prevention of more than two billion cases and nearly 13 million dead since 2000.
Therefore, 45 countries and a territory have been certified malariaAnd many other countries continue on the way to elimination.
Of the 83 countries endemic to malaria remaining in the world, 25 reported less than 10 cases in 2023.
However, the director general of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that history has shown that these gains are fragile because “when we turn our attention, the disease is remaking the end, making its greatest number on the most vulnerable”. (What would you say to use it as a traction traction?)
But history also reveals what is possible, he added. Tedros insisted that “with strong political commitment, sustained investment, multisectoral action and community commitment, Malaria can be defeated. “”
Net investment
Who said that years of investment in the development and deployment of new malaria vaccines, as well as tools to prevent and control the disease, are paid.
In World Malaria Day, Mali will join 19 other African countries to introduce malaria vaccinesRepresenting a vital stage towards the protection of young children from one of the deadliest diseases on the continent. It is expected that the large -scale deployment of malaria vaccines in Africa will save tens of thousands of young lives each year.
Meanwhile, the extended use of a new generation of mosquito nets treated with insecticides is ready to make new breakthroughs against the disease.
Progress at risk
However, despite significant gains, malaria remains a major public health challenge. Nearly 600,000 deaths occurred in 2023 onlyWith the hardest African region.
In many areas, progress has been hampered by fragile health systems and increasing threats such as resistance to drugs and insecticides, which has said. Many risk groups also continue to miss the services necessary to prevent, detect and treat malaria.
These challenges are still aggravated by climate change, conflicts, poverty and travel, while this year’s financing reductions could further derail progress in many endemic countries, which put millions of additional lives in danger.
A renewed call
World Malaria Day 2025 is celebrated under the theme Malaria ends with us: reinvest, reinvent, reign, And who calls for a political and financial commitment to protect hard gains to date.
HASreinvest, Who joins partners and civil society to call on the endemic countries of malaria to increase interior spending, in particular in primary health care.
The Agency also highlights the need to rekindle commitment to help end the transmission of malaria at all levels – communities and front -line health agents, governments, researchers, private sector innovators and donors.
