The worst has been avoided but the situation remains worrying.

If the catastrophic scenario of a doubling of the number of deaths has been avoided thanks to the mobilization of health authorities, the Covid-19 pandemic is responsible for an increase in the number of deaths from malaria in 2020.

“Despite the restrictions and disruptions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, countries where malaria is endemic have managed to avoid the worst-case scenario that many, including the WHO, had announced. very positive message, "said Dr Pedro Alonso, director of the malaria program at the World Health Organization.

However, by disrupting prevention programs, treatment detection, etc., the pandemic was responsible for 47,000 of the 69,000 additional deaths in 2020.

In total, the disease affected 241 million people around the world last year, 14 million more than in 2019. It killed 627,000 people.

Call for remobilization

If progress has been made and that they allow many countries to hope to eradicate the disease soon, this is not the case in sub-Saharan Africa where, on the contrary, the situation is deteriorating, underlines the WHO in its report, which also recalls that after "phenomenal" successes in the 2000s, the fight against the disease has reached a plateau since 2017.

The WHO Africa region accounts for 95% of malaria cases and 96% of deaths.

And 80% of deaths in Africa are in children under 5.

Infections increased from 15 million cases to 228 million between 2019 and 2020, the death toll also increased from 534,000 to 602,000 in one year.

"I think we are on the verge of a potential malaria crisis," warned Dr Alonso, calling for remobilization against what remains "a massive global public health problem that must be tackled. the body, with countries where the disease is still endemic leading the charge, "he insisted.

In 2021, two countries could be declared free from malaria: China and El Salvador.

In total, between 2000 and 2020, 23 countries have managed to line up three consecutive years without any local malaria cases.

Applications from Azerbaijan and Tajikistan to be recognized as malaria-free countries are under consideration, says the WHO.

Vaccination program

Another piece of good news on the fight against this scourge has been announced recently.

The Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) board of directors last week gave the green light to a program to immunize children against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and released an initial envelope of $ 155.7 million, according to a report. press release from the organization.

Since 2019, three countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, have started to introduce the RTS, S vaccine in selected areas where malaria transmission is moderate to severe.

Two years after the start of this first full-scale test in the world, 2.3 million doses of vaccine have been administered.

Manufactured by British pharmaceutical giant GSK, RTS, S is the first vaccine, and the only one so far, to have shown efficacy in significantly reducing the number of cases of malaria, including severe life-threatening malaria, in children.

With AFP

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