|
Malaria kills 3,000 children every day
Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes. Once the first symptoms appear, malaria can kill very rapidly — and often does. More than a million people die of malaria each year, most of them children under five.
In Africa, malaria is the leading cause of death among young children, killing a child every 30 seconds.
Malaria threatens more than 40% of the world’s population
Malaria is a serious problem in over half the world’s countries. Every year, there are between 350 and 500 million cases of malaria worldwide.
Children, pregnant women, people living in emergency situations and people with HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to this devastating disease.
Malaria costs Africa USD12 billion a year
Malaria is holding back economic and social development, especially in Africa.
Malaria-endemic countries are caught in a vicious circle of disease and poverty. Malaria slows a country’s economic growth, discourages foreign investment and tourism, discourages the development of internal trade and adversely affects people’s choice of economic activities, while depleting human resources.
But malaria can be beaten
The fight to control malaria demands an attack on two fronts: protecting the vulnerable and treating the sick. Sleeping under a mosquito net treated with insecticides that kill mosquitoes or stop them from biting is powerful prevention against malaria, as is spraying inside dwellings with insecticides that leave a residue on walls. Special protection for pregnant women and rapid treatment with effective anti-malarial drugs for anyone suspected of having malaria can save lives.
To provide a coordinated global approach to fighting malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank launched the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership in 1998. Today the partnership includes malaria-endemic countries, their bilateral and multilateral development partners, the private sector, non-governmental and community-based organizations, foundations, and research and academic institutions. They all bring a formidable assembly of expertise, infrastructure and funds to the fight against the disease.
The RBM partnership’s goal is to halve the burden of malaria by 2010.
|
