MAlaria is a pandemic disease that hits the voiceless people hardest: the majority of those who fall ill and die are young children and pregnant women in Africa. It is the continent's leading infectious killer, responsible for near 600,000 deaths per year. Cases are rising and there is an urgent need for more funding, but Western donor countries are cutting aid instead. We still hear bold talk about eradicating malaria. But the expert report is now warning of a potential resurgence that could add nearly a million more deaths to the annual death toll by the end of the decade.
Most of the money to fight mosquito-borne diseases—59%—comes through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Its chief executive is Peter Sands. said Last week at the World Health Summit in Berlin, of the three killers, the one that kept him up at night was malaria.
This could be the canary in the coal mine. Malaria kills much faster than HIV or tuberculosis. The consequences of funding cuts and aid redirection, as well as write-off Donald Trump's US Agency for International Development (USAID), which houses so many global health experts, will be seen in its malaria numbers faster than most other diseases. But there is also human devastation of the environment.
The climate crisis is changing rainfall patterns and facilitating the spread of mosquitoes. The parasites they carry have developed some resistance in East Africa to artemisinins, the best drugs we have against this disease. The same thing happened with chloroquine and every other malaria drug, and also undermines the effectiveness of artemisinin-impregnated bed nets. While the drugs were in full force, there was a window of real opportunity, but it is closing. Another hope is vaccines, some of which have already been developed and introduced, but although they provide about 50% protection against death from malaria in the first year (for a child lucky enough to receive the vaccine), they do not stop transmission.
The number of cases rose sharply in 2023, the latest for which we have data, reaching 263 million, an increase of 11 million from the previous year. The report from a group of agencies, including Malaria No More UK and the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, supports the Global Fund's call for more money. Analysis of the data shows the damage that will be done if the fight against malaria slips, as well as the huge positive impact on African lives and economies if pressure on the parasite can be maintained. Achievement Annual financing plan for 2030 will save 1.86 million lives and increase Africa's GDP by $231 billion as healthy children remain in school and become economically productive rather than a detriment to society. But a 20% cut would result in 82,000 additional deaths and a $5.14 billion drop in GDP. Severe funding cuts would mean another 990,000 deaths due to failure of malaria prevention and an $83 billion drop in GDP.
Alarmingly, a second scenario is already emerging: Germany has pledged €1 billion to the Global Fund, a 23% reduction from previous contributions. Malaria it is indeed a difficult disease to overcome, but it can be done, and it would certainly be unthinkable to allow murder to rise again. The UK, which is rumored to be considering a 20% cut, and other countries must find means, no matter how limited their budgets, to save the lives of voiceless children.
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