Malaria - Facts & Figures
The Disease
Malaria is caused by microscopic parasites which are transmitted from person to person by female anopheles mosquitoes. When an infective mosquito bites, she transmits malaria parasites to her victim who falls ill. Other mosquitoes then pick up the parasite from the infected person and continue spreading the disease when biting other people.
The first signs of malaria are usually fever, aching and headache. Malaria may also cause a variety of symptoms and as a result is easily confused with other common illnesses. Untreated malaria can lead to severe anaemia, organ damage, convulsions, coma and death.
Worldwide
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an estimated one million people in Africa die from malaria each year, 90% of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa
- 71% of all deaths from malaria are in children under 5. A child's most vulnerable period begins at six months, when the mother's protective immunity wears off and before the infant has established its own robust immune system. Once infected a child's condition may deteriorate quickly and children can die within 48 hours after the first symptoms appear (Roll Back Malaria)
- the consensus view of recent studies and reviews is that malaria causes at least 20% of all deaths in children under 5 years of age in Africa
- malaria kills a child every 30 seconds
- 300 to 500 million clinical cases of malaria are documented each year worldwide
- the majority of infections in Africa are caused by Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous of the four human malaria parasites
- there are three principal ways in which malaria can contribute to death in young children:
- an overwhelming acute infection, which frequently presents as seizures or coma (cerebral malaria), may kill a child directly and quickly.
- repeated malaria infections contribute to the development of severe anaemia, which substantially increases the risk of death.
- low birth weight - frequently the consequence of malaria infection in pregnant women - is the major risk factor for death in the first month of life. In addition, repeated malaria infections make young children more susceptible to other common childhood illnesses, such as diarrhoea and respiratory infections, and thus contribute indirectly to mortality (Roll Back Malaria).
- in all malaria-endemic countries in Africa, 25-40% (average 30%) of all outpatient clinic visits are for malaria (with most diagnosis made clinically). In these same countries, between 20% and 50% of all hospital admissions are a consequence of malaria
- more than 41% of the world's population is at risk of acquiring malaria, and the proportion increases yearly due to deteriorating health systems, growing drug and insecticide resistance, climate change and war.
- according to the report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, up to US$2 billion will be needed each year to achiev the goal of halving the burden of malaria by 2010. Currently, only US$600 million is being spent.
Impact by Region
Malaria is prevalent in a total of 105 countries and territories: 45 countries in WHO's African Region, 21 in WHO's Americas Region, 6 in WHO's European Region, 14 in WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region, 9 in WHO's South East Asia Region, and 10 in WHO's Western Pacific Region.
Approximately six percent of malaria cases occur in Southern and Southeast Asia, Mexico, Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Central and South America, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands.
(WHO)
Resistance
In Africa, most cases of malaria are diagnosed on the basis of clinical symptoms and treatment is presumptive, rather than based on laboratory confirmation. The main clinical symptoms of malaria - fever and general weakness - are nonspecific and may well be due to other common infections.
Resistance to chloroquine - the former treatment of choice - is now widespread in 8O% of the 92 countries where malaria continues to be a major killer, while resistance to newer second and third-line drugs continues to grow. (WHO publication CDS 2000)
WHO guidelines stipulate that once a country's resistance levels to a drug reach 15%, it should start considering a policy shift to a new drug.
