Malaria still claims over half a million lives: WHO

MN Report

KARACHI- World Health Organization (WHO) has urged the global health community to urgently address significant gaps in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malaria.

A press release of the WHO said: “Despite dramatic decline in malaria cases and deaths since 2000, more than half a million lives are still lost to this preventable disease each year.”

Elaborating, the WHO said that at least three quarters of malaria deaths occur in children under five-year. Yet in 2013, only about 1 in 5 African children with malaria received effective treatment for the disease, 15 million pregnant women did not receive a single dose of the recommended preventive drugs, and an estimated 278 million people in Africa still live in households without a single insecticide-treated bed-net.

“As we celebrate World Malaria Day on April 25, we must recognize the urgent need to expand prevention measures and quality-assured diagnostic testing and treatment to reduce the human suffering caused by malaria,” says Dr Hiroki Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and neglected tropical diseases.