By Asmau Ahmad
The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed grave concern over the rising cases of Malaria disease across the African continent.
The WHO stated that Africa in 2021, recorded 234 million cases and 593 000 deaths from malaria.
The global health body attributed the situation to its discovery that a substantial population of the continent lack access to healthcare facilities and pays heavily to obtain healthcare.
It expressed the concern in a statement to commemorate the ‘World Malaria Day 2023.’
The theme of this year’s celebration is ‘Time to Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement.’
“While congratulating our Member States and development partners for achievements over the last year, we are greatly concerned that malaria deaths remain unacceptably high, and cases have continued to increase since 2015.”
“The WHO African Region alone accounted, in 2021, for an estimated 234 million malaria cases and 593 000 deaths, thus bearing the heaviest burden of over 95% of cases and 96% of deaths globally.
“Our region, therefore, continues to be hardest hit by this deadly disease partly because too many people do not have access to preventive and curative interventions,” the statement read.
WHO noted that nearly 30 per cent of the population in most African countries cannot access essential health services and that most face unacceptably high expenditures on healthcare.
“Significant inequities affect the most vulnerable, young children and women, whereas about 80 per cent of malaria cases and deaths occur in children under five.
“To reverse these trends and accelerate progress, WHO African countries need to rethink and revitalize their healthcare strategies by investing, innovating and implementing smartly to guarantee easy and affordable healthcare to their larger populations,” WHO stated.
