WHO likely to miss global malaria targets: Director General

In 2018, worldwide 405,000 people lost their lives due to malaria infection out of which 67 per cent were children below 5 years, reveals the World Malaria Report 2019.

Highlights

• Maximum 8 percent increase in malaria in Nigeria.
• Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a Latin American country has also witnessed a rise in malaria cases.
• 18 Sub-Saharan countries and India account for 85 percent malaria cases worldwide.
• Incidence of malaria cases per 1,000 population are stagnant at 47 sinnce 2014.

As global incidence rate of malaria is almost stagnant since 2014 and cases are increasing in some countries, the Director General of World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concerns on achieving the targets of global malaria strategy set up to make the world free from the mosquito borne disease by 2030.

"In recent years, global progress in reducing new malaria cases has levelled off. Most worrying of all, malaria is on the rise across some high-burden countries in Africa. Critical milestones of our global malaria strategy are likely to be missed," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO) on Global Malaria Report 2019 released on December 4. In reference to 2015, the WHO has set a global target for reducing malaria cases and mortality of malaria by 40 percent, 75 percent and 90 percent respectively by the years 2020, 2025 and 2030.

According to the report about 8 percent increase in malaria cases were seen in Nigeria followed by 3.2 percent in Ghana. However, in terms of absolute number of cases, Nigeria witnessed 3.2 million more cases while Ghana had 0.5 million more malaria cases in comparison to 2017. There were insignificant changes in 14 other countries on malaria cases in 2018 in comparison to the previous year. Globally, the incidence of malaria cases on per 1,000 population decreased from 71 in 2010 to 57 in 2014 but remained at the same level till 2018.

In 2018, 228 million cases occurred globally which were down by 23 million in 2017. African region had maximum 93 per cent of the cases. "Nineteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa and India carried almost 85 percent of the global malaria burden. The six countries accounted for more than half of all malaria cases worldwide: Nigeria (25%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12%), Uganda (5%), and Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique and Niger (4% each)," said the report.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a Latin American country has also witnessed a rise in malaria cases. However, the number of malaria cases in 2018 were down by 2.6 million in comparison to the previous year, it is still among 19 countries which have 85 percent malaria burden.

There are two varieties of mosquitos which cause malaria – Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. The P. falciparum is dominant in Africa while P.vivax in Asian, South East Asian countries and Americas. Globally, 53 percent of the malaria is caused by P.vivax of which India has a burden of 47 percent.