More pregnant women and children protected from malaria, but accelerated efforts and funding needed to reinvigorate global response, WHO report shows | WPN World People News

The number of pregnant women and children in sub-Saharan Africa sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets and benefiting from preventive medicine for malaria has increased significantly in recent years, according to the World Health Organization.

However, accelerated efforts are needed to reduce infections and deaths in the hardest-hit countries, as progress stalls. Last year, malaria afflicted 228 million people and killed an estimated 405 000, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Pregnancy reduces a woman’s immunity to malaria, making her more susceptible to infection and at greater risk of illness, severe anaemia and death. Maternal malaria also interferes with the growth of the fetus, increasing the risk of premature delivery and low birth weight – a leading cause of child mortality.

“Pregnant women and children are the most vulnerable to malaria, and we cannot make progress without focusing on these two groups,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “We’re seeing encouraging signs, but the burden of suffering and death caused by malaria is unacceptable, because it is largely preventable. The lack of improvement in the number of cases and deaths from malaria is deeply troubling.”

In 2018, an estimated 11 million pregnant women were infected with malaria in areas of moderate and high disease transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, nearly 900 000 children were born with a low birthweight.

Despite the encouraging signs seen in the use of preventive tools in pregnant women and children, there was no improvement in the global rate of malaria infections in the period 2014 to 2018.

Inadequate funding remains a major barrier to future progress. In 2018, total funding for malaria control and elimination reached an estimated US$ 2.7 billion, falling far short of the US$ 5 billion funding target of the global strategy.

Source: World Health Organization