Covid-19 May Slow Progress in Malaria Eradication-Health

The Oxford University team at the Jenner Institute, which developed the AstraZeneca vaccine (Covid-19) for coronavirus disease, will begin a phase 3 human trial of promising shots for malaria. It will be tested on 48,000 children in Africa. In early 2021.

“It will be available in very large quantities-it will work pretty well, and it will be very cheap,” Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute, said in an interview with the Times (in London). Told to. The malaria vaccine may be publicly available by 2024.

“Malaria is a public health emergency. In Africa this year, far more people will die of malaria than they will die of Covid. I don’t mean twice, maybe ten times,” said Professor Hill. Told.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) World Malaria Report 2020 released on November 30, the death toll of Covid-19 exceeded 1.5 million worldwide on December 3, with 411,000 malaria deaths. It will be nearly four times.

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Malaria is declining globally, with 4,09,000 lives lost last year and 411,000 in 2018, according to a WHO report using data from national malaria control programs in 87 malaria endemic countries, including India. The life of a person was lost. Children under the age of five, who live primarily in Africa, account for the majority of deaths.

National malaria control efforts around the world have avoided 1.5 billion cases and killed 7.6 million people since 2000, according to the report, but to preventive tools and medical services in many parts of the world. Inadequate access to the drug has led to avoidable deaths. It remains high among vulnerable and underserved people.

In India, malaria deaths fell from about 29,500 in 2000 to about 7,700 last year, the largest decline in the WHO Southeast Asia region, down from 20 million in 2000. Last year it reached about 5.6 million.

The WHO Southeast Asia region, which accounts for a quarter of the world’s population, currently bears about 3% of the global burden of malaria cases, a 73% reduction from 23 million in 2000 to about 6.3 million. did. 2019. Deaths fell by 74%, from about 35,000 in 2000 to 9,000 in 2019, the largest decline in India.

In the last two years, India has seen a 18% reduction in cases and a 20% reduction in deaths in the last two years, according to the report. The country’s malaria deaths have fallen from about 29,500 in 2000 to about 7,700 last year, the report said.

“Southeast Asian countries have made particularly strong progress, with cases and deaths falling by 73% and 74%, respectively. India contributed the largest decline across the region — from about 20 million to about 6 million. “WHO Secretary-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreyes said in the preface of the report.

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By improving interventions and tool targeting, such as pesticide nets and preventatives, and increasing funding, we can speed up our efforts to eradicate malaria by 2030. In 2019, total funding reached $ 3 billion against the global target of $ 5.6 billion, but the pandemic burden on the Covid-19 healthcare system and the global economy is expected to recede further. ..

The number of cases in sub-Saharan Africa has remained unchanged since 2016, at around 229 million, and this year the region is even below the milestones set at the 2015 World Health Assembly. A 10% interruption in access to antimalarial treatment killed an additional 19,000 people this year, and a 25% or 50% turmoil killed 46,000 and 100,000, respectively.

To date, approximately 30,000 Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, of which more than two-thirds occur in South Africa. “Excessive malaria mortality is likely to be higher than direct Covid-19 mortality,” WHO director of the malaria program, Pedro Alonso, said in a report release.

The African region accounts for 90% of the malaria burden. The 11 most burdened countries account for 70% of the world’s estimated case burden and 71% of the world’s estimated malaria deaths. These include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania.