According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), malaria is widespread in over a hundred territories and nations worldwide, with the majority of cases occurring in less developed hotspots in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Malaria kills about one million people in Africa alone each year. 90% of the approximately 500 million occur in Sub-Saharan Africa (Mathanga, 2014). According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, malaria kills one out of every five African children under the age of five.
Malaria exacts its toll in the form of lost lives, lost income, diminished economic productivity, and medical bills. Malaria was often thought to be a result of poverty, but it is now one of its primary causes. Experts say that is slowing economic growth of Africa up to 1.3% each year (Mathanga, 2014). Children miss school due to malaria, suffer intellectually and physically, and they cannot contribute income to their families through agricultural work. WHO highlights that many families use about a quarter of what they earn for malaria treatment.
In 1998, United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP), WHO, World Bank and UNICEF started a global partnership called Roll Back Malaria (RBM). This coalition sought to cut incidences of malaria through insecticide-treated mosquito nets, early diagnosis, and timely treatment, treating pregnant women, response to epidermis and prevention. In the same year, African leaders signed Abuja Declaration call for particular actions by governments so that at least 60% of the victims access efficient treatment in 24 hours, another 60% of children and pregnant women to get treated mosquito nets and have access to preventive intermittent treatment and antimalarial medication (Mathanga, 2014).
Other international efforts made to control malaria include putting a focus on genetically modifying malaria-carrying female mosquito and prohibiting malaria parasite to travel from the mosquito's gut to its saliva.
References
Mathanga, D. P. (2014). Impact of a large-scale insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) program on Malaria in Malawian children, 34-42.
