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Conquering The Intolerable Burden Of Malaria
International efforts endeavor to better understand malaria, aiming to combat
and ultimately eliminate the disease… |
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Schoolchildren in Kinshasa,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, participating in a survey
to assess the extent of urban malaria in Kinshasa |
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A young participant
waits for his turn to be examined, during a randomized, controlled
field trial on treatment of anemia; in Africa, anemia is often
caused by malaria; the trial was conducted in Asembo Bay (near
lake Victoria) by the Kenya Medical
Research Institute (KEMRI) and CDC |
- Every year, malaria causes up to 3 million deaths throughout the
world
- Africa bears over 90 percent of the malaria burden of the world
- 58 percent of malaria cases occur in the poorest 20 percent of
the world’s population
- In malarious areas of Africa, among children with fever (and thus
with suspected malaria) barely more than half (53 percent) receive
treatment with an antimalarial drug, according to a recent survey
- Insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) are an important methods of
preventing malaria; however, a recent survey in Africa indicated
that ITNs are used by only 2 percent of children under five, an age
group at greatest risk for malaria
These daunting statistics, and many others, are discussed in a collection
of papers recently published in the American
Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene as a supplement
(August 2004). (Most papers have abstracts accessible to the
general public; full texts can be accessed only by AJTMH subscribers.)
Several of the papers were presented at a symposium held during the
Third Multilateral
Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan African Conference in November
2002, in Arusha, Tanzania.
The international authors discuss topics that include:
- methods used to calculate the global burden of disease (including
malaria)
- social and economic burdens due to malaria
- clinical components of the malaria burden (e.g., anemia, neurological
defects, perinatal mortality, co-infection with HIV)
- monitoring the burden through the Roll
Back Malaria Partnership
- impact of mosquito transmission on malaria disease and death
- malaria epidemics and how to prevent them
- urban malaria and how to control it
- cost-effectiveness of malaria control methods (e.g., insecticide-treated
bednets, artemisinin-based combination therapies)
- potential vaccines against malaria
 past spotlights
Page last modified : September
16,
2004
Content source: Division of Parasitic Diseases
National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases (ZVED)
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