ABUJA, NIGERIA — The World Health Organization (WHO) and public health experts are calling for increased political commitment and funding to fight malaria, especially in endemic regions like Africa. This week’s release of the 2024 World Malaria Report by the WHO said there were 11 million more malaria cases compared to the previous year and that Ethiopia and Nigeria recorded their highest death tolls from the disease since 2015.
According to Wednesday’s report, there were 263 million cases of the mosquito-borne disease and nearly 600,000 deaths worldwide last year.
The report indicates global malaria cases grew by about 11 million compared to the year prior while fatalities remained nearly the same.
The WHO report said Africa accounted for 95% of global malaria deaths. Most of the victims were children under 5 years of age.
Dr. Kehinde Ajayi, an expert on malaria epidemiology and control, said one issue is that since 2020, most developing nations have had a shortage of resources to combat the disease.
“Some of the resources like insecticide-treated nets and also funding towards the malaria control programs have been hampered because of … COVID-19 and the economic imbalance in developing countries,” Ajayi said.
Ajayi said climate change and declining effectiveness of anti-malaria drugs are threatening progress.
Nigeria bears the world’s highest burden of malaria with more than 27% of global malaria cases and 31% of deaths.
But the WHO report also showed some progress — estimating that about 2.2 billion cases of malaria and 12.7 million deaths were averted globally since 2000.
Ajayi said increased government funding for malaria interventions could change things.
“Mosquitoes thrive very well under temperatures that are more than 19 degrees Celsius, and the climate change has made [that] possible,” Ajayi said. “Also, the plasmodium parasite has gained a lot of resistance against malaria drugs. Also, the government needs to invest more in our health sector. Government also needs to fund research that will help us in discovering indigenous drugs.”
The WHO report said only about half of the $8.7 billion target for malaria intervention last year was achieved.
In Nigeria, spending on health care is about 4% of the national budget, much lower than the 15% agreed upon by the African Union in 2001 — in the so-called Abuja Declaration.
Authorities have pledged to improve spending on health. On Thursday, Nigeria signed a deal to promote local production of test kits for HIV and malaria.
Last week, Nigeria launched its malaria vaccination campaign — becoming the latest African country to provide malaria vaccines to young children.
There are now 17 countries giving new malaria vaccines.
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