London: World Health Organization (WHO) hopes to eradicate malaria by the year 2015.
In its annual World Malaria Report for 2011, the world health body announced that Malaria cases have been reduced by 17 percent since 2000, while the deaths show a 26 percent decrease.
Although WHO hailed the developments as a “major achievement”, it seems to be far below the expected goal to reduce the number of patients by 50 percent last year.
Last year, there were about 216 million cases of malaria worldwide, with about 81 percent of those in Africa, mostly in children under five.
But those figures come with a big margin of error since WHO did not have enough data for more than two dozen African countries to accurately track malaria’s spread.
Director of the WHO’s malaria program says the organization is hoping to eradicate malaria deaths altogether by the end of 2015.
Dr. Robert Newman emphasized that the goal would be only achieved if every person at risk has access to a bed net and suspected cases are properly diagnosed and treated.
“It is unacceptable that people continue to die from malaria for lack of a $5 bed net, a 50 cent diagnostic test and a $1 anti-malarial treatment,” added WHO official who estimated the overall needed fund as $6 billion a year which is about three times more than the world currently spends.
It is disappointing to not have reduced malaria by 50 percent last year but it is a “truly significant progress” that the death rates dropped by over one-third in Africa, Newman noted.
Some independent experts do not believe WHO’s program for eradicating malaria can be achieved especially due to fund raising problems caused by the global financial crisis.
Reportedly, international funding for the fight against malaria rose to $2 billion this year which is far away from the WHO estimates.
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