World malaria report 2023
<p>India topped countries in the South-East Asia region for the most number of malaria cases and deaths in 2022, according to this report published by the World Health Organization (WHO).</p>
Malaria
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Malaria eradication in India : A failure?
In the 7 December 2007 issue, L. Roberts and M. Enserink discuss malaria eradication in the News Focus Story "Did they really say..eradication?" Information from India's 5-year economic plans shows that even if complete eradication cannot be secured, economic gains and reduced suffering may be worth the effort. (Letters)
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Govt maps areas hit by malaria
A map, which pin-points the location of India's remote villages worst affected by malaria, will now spearhead the country's war against the vector-borne disease.
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Drive to control malaria
Alipurduar: In a move to control Malaria in Jalpaiguri, the district health officials with the help of the forest department and NGOs will set up 55 fever treatment depots (FTDs), along with laboratories, in 76 forest villages. Thousands of people suffer from malaria and die of the disease in the district every year. Among the worst affected areas are forest villages which do not have sufficient medical facilities. The North Bengal Development Council has already sanctioned Rs 49 lakh and eight NGOs in the district have been selected to make the project successful. Besides testing blood at the laboratories, health staff will be distributing mosquito nets to the villagers under the scheme.
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Japan gives $184 mil to Global Fund for AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria
Japan will provide $184 million of fresh aid to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Friday. This will bring Tokyo's total contribution to $850 million since the fund was established in 2002 to combat the three diseases that kill 5 million people each year, according to the Foreign Ministry. The fund, created as a result of discussion by leaders at the G-8 summit in Okinawa in 2000, has supported a total of 524 projects in 136 countries.
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The billion-dollar malaria moment
For years the global malaria effort has been asking for more resources.Now the field needs to figure out a systematic strategy for spending the money effectively.
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Time to take control
With money now flowing in, the fight against malaria must shift from advocacy to getting results. (Editorial)
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Now, ACT to be new anti-malarial drug
With 1.67 million cases of malaria and around 1,000 deaths last year, the government has changed the drug policy and directed states from January this year to introduce the ACT (artesunate and sulpha pyrimethamine) combination as the first line of anti-malarial drug treatment in chloroquine-resistant areas. Dr G S Sonal, Joint Director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVDCP), told The Indian Express that there has been concern over the increasing number of plasmodium falciparum (PF) cases of malaria. India contributes to 77 per cent cases of malaria in South East Asia. PF in the 70s amounted to less than 15 per cent of the malaria cases, but this has now gone up to 50 per cent of the total malaria cases. Moreover the dangerous PF has developed resistance to chloroquine in various parts of the country. Sixty-five per cent of cases of malaria in various pockets of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal are due to PF and drug resistance to chloroquine is high here. Chloroquine however is useful in states like Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. At least one million ACT course drugs will be supplied to the high endemic states. So far the government had supplied 20 crore tablets of chloroquine in the country. This quantum of drugs will be slightly reduced, Sonal said. According to Dr A P Dash, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), the PF species of malaria is spreading wider due to migration of population from endemic to non-endemic areas and drug sensitivity studies from various states have observed that there is resistance to the drug chloroquine - which is being used as the first line of treatment for malaria cases. The last time the policy was revised was in 2003. Vaccine for malaria Two sites have been selected for trial of a vaccine against malaria. Epidemiological and immunological data will be collected from the sites selected in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh to test the vaccine. The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi, has developed the vaccine and will be tested at these two sites, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research Dr A P Dash said.
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Ten ill after consuming anti-malaria medicines
While the Midnapore West district health department has been testing anti-malaria drug on the people of Belpahari, over 10 of them fell ill after consuming the newly-introduced drug. They are being treated in Belpahari Block Primary Hospital where the condition of Mrs Sushmi Karmakar, 35, of Chutiapukhri and Mr Manasaram Desowali, 30, of Dainmari has been reported to be serious. Admitted 16 days ago, the condition of Mrs Karmakar has been deteriorating everyday. Similar is the condition of Mr Desowali.
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Bush Touts Effort to Stop Malaria Deaths
President Bush handed out hugs and bed nets in Tanzania's rural north on Monday, saying the United States is part of an international effort to provide enough netting to protect every child under five in the east African nation. ''The suffering caused by malaria is needless and every death caused by malaria is unacceptable,'' Bush said in an open air pavilion at Meru District Hospital. ''It is unacceptable to people in the United States who believe every human life has value, and that the power to save lives comes with the moral obligation to use it.'' Bush is on six-day trek through five African nations. The public mission of his travels is to improve health on an impoverished continent. The underlying one is to preserve his initiatives beyond his presidency and cement humanitarianism as a key part of his legacy. The president launched a plan in 2005 to dramatically reduce malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, the worst affected region in the world. More than 80 percent of malaria cases happen here; the disease kills at least 1 million infants and children under five every year. Congress so far has put $425 million toward Bush's $1.2 billion, five-year program, which has helped more than 25 million people. In Tanzania alone, malaria kills roughly 100,000 people a year. Bush said the tremendous loss will not be tolerated. ''It is unacceptable to people here in Africa, who see their families devastated and their economies crippled,'' he said in the northern highlands of Arusha, an area known as a cradle of African safari adventure. Bush announced that the U.S. and Tanzania, in partnership with the World Bank and the Global Fund, plan to distribute 5.2 million free bed nets in Tanzania in six months. That's enough, he said, to provide a net for every child between ages one and five in Tanzania. Bush landed here, in sight of the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, and was greeted by Maasai women dancers who wore purple robes and white discs around their necks. The president joined their line and enjoyed himself, but held off on dancing. As Bush's motorcade made the long drive from the airport to the hospital, it passed through several villages where hundreds of locals lined the road. At one point, flowers had been strewn in the street before the car of the president, who is popular here for the help his administration is providing to battle disease. In every part of the hospital he toured, women spontaneously hugged the president. He visited with pregnant women receiving vouchers for bed nets and children waiting to be diagnosed and treated for malaria. He shook hands as mothers quieted fussy children. After his remarks, the president and his wife, first lady Laura Bush, distributed several U.S.-funded bed nets treated with insecticide to women waiting quietly on benches. While Bush was visiting the hospital, a textile factory where the bed nets are made and a girls school, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was headed north from Tanzania into Kenya to try to help push forward deadlocked peace talks. A disputed presidential election there led to a wave of violence just ahead of Bush's trip. Tanzania is one of 15 countries that benefit through the distribution of live-saving medicines, insecticide spraying and bed nets that keep mosquitoes away at night. Those bed nets, which cost about $10, have long-lasting insecticide. The Bushes are touring a plant where nets are woven, hung on hooks for inspection and bagged for shipment. The U.S. drive to spend money on the health of Africans, including a much larger effort on HIV/AIDS, is appreciated here. In a recent Pew Research Center report, African countries held more favorable views of the U.S. than any others in the world. And Bush, the face of the U.S. superpower, is showered with praise wherever he goes. It seems a world away from the sentiment at home, where his public approval is at 30 percent. ------ Associated Press Writer Ben Feller reported from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.