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    Malaria and Africa

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    felixdambula
    Malaria is endemic in many countries, especially in Africa where it is a major public health problem. Each year malaria causes over 1 million deaths, mostly among children in sub-Saharan Africa. In response, African heads of state established goals through the Abuja Declaration to increase access to prevention and treatment of malaria, especially for pregnant women and children. Effective control of malaria in Africa will require prompt diagnosis and treatment, widespread use of insecticide-treated bed nets, intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy, and efforts to promote peace and stability.

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    Malaria and Africa

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    felixdambula
    27 views2 pages
    Malaria is endemic in many countries, especially in Africa where it is a major public health problem. Each year malaria causes over 1 million deaths, mostly among children in sub-Saharan Africa. In response, African heads of state established goals through the Abuja Declaration to increase access to prevention and treatment of malaria, especially for pregnant women and children. Effective control of malaria in Africa will require prompt diagnosis and treatment, widespread use of insecticide-treated bed nets, intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy, and efforts to promote peace and stability.

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    Malaria is endemic in many countries, especially in Africa where it is a major public health problem. Each year malaria causes over 1 million deaths, mostly among children in sub-Saharan Africa. In response, African heads of state established goals through the Abuja Declaration to increase access to prevention and treatment of malaria, especially for pregnant women and children. Effective control of malaria in Africa will require prompt diagnosis and treatment, widespread use of insecticide-treated bed nets, intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy, and efforts to promote peace and stability.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as rtf, pdf, or txt
    27 views2 pages

    Malaria and Africa

    Uploaded by

    felixdambula
    Malaria is endemic in many countries, especially in Africa where it is a major public health problem. Each year malaria causes over 1 million deaths, mostly among children in sub-Saharan Africa. In response, African heads of state established goals through the Abuja Declaration to increase access to prevention and treatment of malaria, especially for pregnant women and children. Effective control of malaria in Africa will require prompt diagnosis and treatment, widespread use of insecticide-treated bed nets, intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy, and efforts to promote peace and stability.

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    MALARIA AND AFRICA

    The global situation Malaria is endemic in 91 countries with about 40% of the worlds population at risk of being infected with the disease. Each year, there are about 300 to 500 million clinical cases of malaria. This results in about 1.5 to 2.7 million annual deaths, mostly of children. About 90% of these deaths occur in Africa, particularly south Saharan. David Alumik (Roll back Malaria) reported that in 100 countries where malaria is endemic, 20% of people are at risk. The malaria problem has been aggravated in the whole world due to increased insecticide resistance (for mosquito vectors) and the emergence of drug resistance strains of various plasmodium species. Even though numerous articles are published every year about the parasite and the disease, progress in controlling malaria has been limited. Resistance has evolved against virtually all drugs currently available (Hayton et al., 2008). Thus among the countries where falciparum malaria persists, only those of Central America have not recorded resistance of P. falciparum to chloroquine, (Cox, et al., 2005). The Word Health organization (WHO) defines drug resistance as the ability of a parasite to multiply or to survive in the presence of concentrations of a drug that normally destroy parasites of the same species or prevent their multiplication. African agendas on malaria The most virulent agent is P. falciparum, which kills up to three million people each year, mainly in Africa (Volkman et al., 2005). In spite of persistent efforts (to control malaria) set up since the end of the fifties, the disease is far from being under control, such that the disease frequently reemerges in different parts of the world. Malaria has proved itself a heavy burden in Africa such that in April, 2000, African heads of state and governments met in Abuja, Nigeria and recognized that malaria was a serious issue. They came up with the Abuja declaration which had the following aims for prevention and control of Malaria: At least 60% of pregnant women should have access to and use effective preventive measures

    At least 60% of children should have access to prompt and effective treatment. (Roll back malaria, 2000). Although, the epidemiology of Malaria varies among climatic zones in Africa, national plans must reflect the local reality. There is now general recognition that four groups of action that could possibly lead to significant reduction in the burden of malaria in Africa: All people, and especially children, suspected to have malaria need prompt diagnosis and treatment with effective drugs. This could be achieved through making availability of such drugs in shops and heath centers. All people at risk of malaria should be encouraged and helped to sleep under insecticide-treated mosquito nets. Pregnant women need additional protection. There is strong evidence that a monthly dose of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine as an intermittent preventive therapy is highly effective against the impact of malaria in pregnancy. Peace and stability. Malaria is a major cause of death and suffering when there are large food shortages, population displacement and when civilians are affected by war and strife. (Africa Health, 2000).

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