MALARIA ON THE BACK FOOT AS WORLD HEADS TOWARDS ELIMINATION

20th November, 2015

The world has met the Millennium Development Goal target of stopping the advance of and reversing the incidence of malaria in the world by the end of 2015, the UN announced this week.

The global body said that progress in the fight against malaria has saved more than 6.2 million deaths since 2000, 97 per cent of which have been among young children. In Africa, where about 90 per cent of all malaria-related deaths occur, there has been an estimated reduction of almost 70 per cent in malaria mortality among children aged under five.

More than 100 countries are free of malaria and at least 55 are on track to reduce its incidence by 75 per cent by the end of the year.

"Today we celebrate major advances in our fight against malaria," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement. "With stronger coordination by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and increased financing, global mortality rates have decreased by more than half since 2000 and the global MDG target for malaria has been achieved."

Despite the advances, the World Health Organization estimates there will be 214 million cases of malaria infection in 2015 resulting in 472,000 deaths, most of whom are African children aged under five-years-old.

The Roll Back Malaria Partnership, which coordinates the global fight against malaria, has urged an ongoing commitment to eliminate malaria completely by 2030.

The challenge of halting and reversing the incidence of malaria and other major diseases was one of the targets of Millennium Development Goal number six.

~ www.un.org

– DAVID ADAMS