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The World Health Organization says interruptions in treatment could lead to tens of thousands more deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in its annual report on mosquito-borne disease to fund shortages and disruptions of care in sub-Saharan Africa due to the risk of a COVID-19 pandemic Monday.
The UN health agency said it was concerned that even moderate disruptions in access to care could lead to “significant loss of life”.
According to the report, a 10% disruption in access to effective anti-malarial care in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to an additional 19,000 deaths. That number jumped to 46,000 with a 25% outage and 100,000 with a 50% outage.
“Progress has stopped,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa. COVID-19 threatens to further derail our efforts to defeat malaria, particularly in the treatment of people with the disease. Despite the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on African economies, international partners and countries need to do more to ensure the resources are there to expand the malaria programs that are making such a difference in people’s lives. “
The latest WHO world report on malaria, which is preventable and treatable and primarily affects African countries, shows that progress against the disease had already slowed when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged earlier this year.
WHO says deployment of networks and other measures to prevent people from contracting malaria has continued even with COVID-19, but the pandemic has made access to care more difficult for people [File: Yanick Folly/AFP]
There were 229 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2019, an annual figure that has remained virtually unchanged over the past four years. About 409,000 people died from the disease in 2019 compared to 411,000 in 2018.
The UN health agency says funding is part of the problem.
In 2000, African leaders signed the historic Abuja Declaration pledging to reduce malaria deaths on the continent by 50 percent over a 10-year period.
The political commitment was accompanied by a sharp increase in national and international funding which helped reduce the number of malaria victims on the continent by 44%.
Lack of funding
But the funding shortage has led to gaps in access to malaria control measures, the WHO said, and the deficit in 2019 was $ 3 billion compared to a goal of $ 5.6 billion.
“Better targeting of interventions, new tools and more funding are needed to change the global trajectory of the disease and achieve internationally agreed goals,” WHO said.
COVID-19 has emerged as an additional challenge because while most malaria prevention campaigns, such as treated sleeping nets, have continued without delay, the pandemic makes it more difficult for people with malaria to access the care they provide. they need.
According to projections from the health agency, the 2020 global target for reducing the incidence of malaria cases will be missed by 37% and the target for reducing mortality will be missed by 22%.
WHO warns the world will miss targets on malaria incidence and deaths in 2020 [File: AFP]
In addition to urging increased spending, WHO notes that its ‘high-load to high-impact’ (HBHI) response, which began in 2018, could help reignite progress.
The 11 countries following the strategy, 10 of them in Africa, have adapted their responses to the disease based on local data and intelligence.
Although the review is still in its infancy, the report found that deaths in the 11 program countries were reduced from 263,000 to 226,000 between 2018 and 2019. India reported case reductions and deaths of 18% and respectively. by 20%, over the last two years.
The report shows that 21 countries have eliminated malaria in the past 20 years; of these, 10 countries have been officially certified as malaria-free by the WHO.
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