WE Online, Dakar, Senegal –
Health care disruptions linked to the coronavirus pandemic helped malaria kill 69,000 more people in 2020 than the previous year. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday (12/6/2021) the worst case scenario could be avoided.
“Thanks to urgent and strenuous efforts, we can claim that the world has managed to prevent the worst-case scenario of dying from malaria,” said Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO’s global malaria programme. Reuters.
Also Read: WHO Says There Is No Doomsday Scenario, Not With Corona But Against The Threat…
In total, more than 627,000 people worldwide — most of them infants in the poorest parts of Africa — died from malaria last year compared to 558,000 in 2019, the WHO said in its annual malaria report.
The number surpasses the 224,000 people reported to have died from the coronavirus in Africa since the start of the pandemic.
About two-thirds of the additional malaria deaths in 2020 were due to coronavirus restrictions interfering with malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment, the WHO said.
But efforts to maintain health services despite the challenges mean Sub-Saharan Africa does not see the doubling of malaria deaths by 2020 that the WHO has warned is a possibility.
In contrast, the number of deaths in the region is up 12% compared to 2019, according to WHO data.
Experts hope the fight against malaria can gain considerable ground following a WHO recommendation in October that the RTS,S — or Mosquirix — vaccine developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) should be widely given to children in Africa.
“With increased funding, access to life-saving tools, and strong innovation in new tools to stay ahead of evolving mosquitoes and parasites, we can accelerate transformative action and end malaria within a generation,” said Abdourahmane Diallo, chief executive officer of RBM Partnership for Ending Malaria Advocacy Groups.
“We are now at a tipping point, and I urge global leaders to renew commitments and investments,” he said in a statement.
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