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A child is tested for malaria in a refugee camp in Sudan
Photo: Gregg Brekke / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO
Last year, for the first time since 2000, significantly more people died of malaria. Compared to the previous year, the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded about 69,000 additional deaths. Around two thirds of this can be traced back to interruptions in malaria programs due to the corona pandemic, reports the WHO in its annual malaria report. However, even before the pandemic, the world was no longer able to reduce the number of malaria as planned.
According to WHO estimates, 241 million people worldwide will contract malaria in 2020, 14 million more than in the previous year. The estimated number of deaths rose to 627,000. Around 96 percent of deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. In this area, malaria is the leading cause of child death - around 80 percent of those who died were under five years old. According to a new WHO calculation method, malaria accounts for 7.8 percent of deaths among children in this age group worldwide. So far, the experts had assumed 4.8 percent.
The results could have been significantly worse, writes the WHO in a press release.
At the beginning of the corona pandemic, the organization warned that the number of malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa could double if aid programs were interrupted.
In order to reduce the deaths from malaria, the organization is calling for better basic medical care in the affected areas.
Hope through new malaria vaccine
Hopes also rest on the new malaria vaccine RTS, S / AS01. The WHO recommended the drug in October for routine use in children in particularly affected regions of the world. Children who live in regions with moderate to high prevalence of malaria should therefore be vaccinated a total of four times with the agent, starting from the age of five months. The vaccine is directed against Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous malaria pathogen.
The vaccination, however, has a comparatively low effectiveness. According to the Phase 3 study, which ran from 2009 to 2014, it prevented about four in ten malaria cases and three in ten severe cases within four years, according to the WHO. In 2017, researcher Mary Hamel, who worked on the vaccine, said its impact would be enormous given the large number of people who develop malaria. "There will be other vaccines and they will be more effective, but in the meantime this one will have a significant impact."
Malaria is caused by various Plasmodium parasites that are transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes.
The body fights the pathogens, among other things, with a fever, which sometimes occurs months after infection.
The parasites attack red blood cells.
Possible consequences include circulatory disorders and an insufficient supply of the organs with nutrients.
Malaria can be cured if the disease is recognized and treated in good time.
Mosquito nets treated with insect killer offer effective protection against infection at night.
In addition, preventive medication can be taken.
Actually, the WHO declared goal for 2020 was to reduce the number of malaria infections in risk areas to 35 cases per 1,000 people.
In fact, the figure was 59 cases per 1,000 people.
The mortality rate was also 44 percent above the actual target.
Nevertheless, there is also good news: Despite the Corona challenges, China and El Salvador were declared malaria-free this year.
irb / dpa