Malaria – a dangerous mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals – is considered one of the most epidemic disaster for human kinds all over the world. Now, many countries are making efforts to wipe out this pandemic within the borders.
According to the report published by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) at an international Malaria Forum conference in Seattle, malaria-against debate is made a remarkable progress when over the 108 nations and territories worldwide experimenting malaria epidemic are on moving toward to wipe out the disease within their borders.
Malaria rate is estimated to be at the highest rate in African countries where the health care and medical conditions are still poor.
Almost half the world’s population — or 3.3 billion people — are at risk of malaria and the parasitic disease killed 781,000 people in 2009, according to the latest data. And most of its victims are in Africa.
Previously, the Global Malaria Eradication Program from 1955 to 1972 was first attempted to halt the disease’s transmission and reducing infections to zero within a defined area. As the first result of malaria elimination, 20 countries were certified by WHO as malaria-free.
However, the efforts was lapsed and the number of malaria-free countries dropped to just four during the following 30 years. So it is high time to have an alarm for all related countries come together to push out this global-scale disease.
What is progress going on?
RBM reported in a review in September that a rapid scale-up of a variety of malaria control programs — such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets, indoor spraying, faster and more exact diagnosis and access to anti-malaria drugs — has saved an estimated 1.1 million lives in Africa within the last 10 years.
International funding for the combat with malaria has also increased substantially recently, achieving about $1.5 billion in 2010, up from $100 million in 2003.
David Brandling-Bennett, deputy director for malaria at the Gates Foundation, which was hosting the Seattle conference, said it was vital for global health authorities, donors and national governments not to take their eye off the ball.
“The reality is that malaria does fight back … and we don’t want to lose the momentum from these gains,” he said.
Newman said that with all the highly effective tools currently available, “no one should die of malaria.” He urged international donors and national governments to push harder to make sure all those who needed them had access to them.
Only then, he explained, would the “global goal of eradicating this ancient scourge” become a reality.
The Malaria Forum is hosted and funded by the Gates Foundation, a $34 billion fund run by the billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The foundation is devoted largely to health projects in poor countries.
In 2007, Gates and his wife Melinda urged the international community to fight for the global eradication of malaria, saying that to aspire to anything less would be “timid.”
Being aware of the risk of malaria, then all citizens and governors should have more efforts to deal with this pandemic thoroughly. “This will save many many more lives”, said Awa Marie Coll-Seck, RBM’s executive director.