Malaria Kills At Least One Million People Annually, Primarily in Africa, World Malaria Report Says

At least one million people die annually from malaria, and most of them live in Africa, according to the World Malaria Report 2005, which was released on Tuesday by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Roll Back Malaria partnership, Agence France-Presse reports. However, because malaria can weaken children to the point that they are susceptible to death from diarrheal or respiratory diseases, the actual number of people who die from malaria-related causes could be about three million annually, the report says, according to Agence France-Presse. The report -- the first analysis of RBM progress -- also found that at the end of 2004, 107 countries and territories with a total population of 3.2 billion people had areas where malaria transmission was a risk. Although sub-Saharan Africa -- where 89% of fatal malaria cases occur -- is "by far the worst-affected" region, the disease also occurs in South and Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific and Central and South America. Parts of Central Asia also have experienced a reemergence of malaria, and an estimated 350 million to 500 million people contract the disease annually (Agence France-Presse, 5/3). "At present malaria remains the infectious disease that takes more lives of children in Africa than any other -- three times as many as HIV infection," UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said, adding, "If we are going to dramatically reduce child deaths in the next decade, we need to put more focus on combating malaria" (Xinhuanet, 5/3).

Progress, Funding
The report also found that over the past four to five years, there has been "substantial progress" in initiating or improving access to malaria prevention and treatment programs for those most affected by the disease, Agence France-Presse reports (Agence France-Presse, 5/3). An increasing number of people worldwide have access to insecticide-treated nets and more countries are providing newer, more effective malaria treatments, the report says (UPI/Washington Times, 5/2). However, many African countries only recently have improved access to prevention and treatment programs, making it "too soon" to determine if the global burden of malaria has decreased or increased since 2000, the report says (Nebehay, Reuters, 5/3). About $3.2 billion annually is needed to fund effective malaria control programs in the 82 most-affected countries, almost $2 billion of which would be directed toward African countries, according to WHO estimates. The report found that "only a fraction of that sum" currently is available, leaving a "huge resource gap," especially in high-burden countries, Agence France-Presse reports (Agence France-Presse, 5/3). "Many countries are moving forward with malaria control programs, and even those with limited resources and a heavy malaria burden now have a better opportunity to gain ground against this disease," WHO Director-General Jong-Wook Lee said, adding, "However, proven interventions such as insecticide-treated nets and the latest artemisinin-based combination therapies must reach many more people before we can have a real impact on malaria" (Xinhuanet, 5/3).