Geneva-Sana
The World Health Organization warned today that the world's preoccupation with confronting the Corona pandemic caused the disruption of health services in many countries and the registration of tens of thousands of malaria deaths worldwide last year as a result of the lack of an appropriate response to this dangerous disease.
And the Associated Press quoted the organization as saying in a report on malaria: that up to 241 million cases of malaria were recorded in 2020, an increase of 14 million cases over the previous year, and 627,000 deaths, an increase of 69,000, noting that “nearly two-thirds of the additional deaths were associated with disruption in the provision of malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment during the epidemic.”
Sub-Saharan Africa will focus at least 95 percent of all malaria cases and deaths in 2020, the agency added.
Dr Pedro Alonso, Director of the Global Malaria Program at the World Health Organization, said: A revised methodology for counting malaria deaths has found that more than 10 million malaria deaths have been averted since 2000, but in recent years "we are not on the path to success", warning that It's hard to know what impact it will have in 2021 and beyond.
The organization warned that progress in the fight against malaria has stalled in recent years and 24 countries have recorded increases in deaths related to the disease since 2015, the base year of the WHO malaria strategy.
The World Health Organization said that annual cases of malaria in the 11 most affected countries increased by 13 million to reach 163 million between 2015 and 2020, and deaths increased by more than 54,000.