Sub-Saharan Africa: Malaria can kill more people than coronavirus, WHO warns

Stopping treatment for malaria caused by the coronavirus pandemic could lead to tens of thousands of malaria deaths, WHO says.

WHO is concerned that even moderate disruptions in access to care could lead to significant loss of life.

In the most optimistic scenarios, a 10% disruption in access to effective malarial treatment in sub-Saharan Africa could result in an additional 19,000 deaths.

If access to health care drops by 15%, an additional 28,000 deaths are expected. 25% and 50% outages in the region could cause an additional 46,000 and 100,000 deaths, respectively.

Gaps in access to vital tools are undermining global efforts to curb the disease and the pandemic is expected to further reduce the fight.

According to our estimates, depending on the level of disruption to services (due to Covid-19), there could be an excess of malaria deaths of around 20,000 100,000 in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly in young children, a. Pedro Alsonso, director of the WHO malaria control program, said at a news conference.