The WHO's attack on malaria eradication



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SOURCE: Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that malaria eradication is a noble but biologically feasible goal, but the focus now needs to be on providing financial resources, tools and the political will to control it.

Although the results of a triennial analysis of global efforts to fight malaria have been revealed, WHO experts have stated that, even though the eradication of mosquito-borne diseases is "feasible", it does not matter. It is not yet possible to determine the cost of achieving this goal or to set a deadline.

"We can not eradicate the disease now"

Pedro Alonso, director of the World Malaria Program, said setting unrealistic targets at unknown costs and dates could lead to "frustration and backlash". The world should therefore focus on the development of new medicines, vaccines and pesticides to combat malaria cases and deaths.

"It is unlikely that with the tools we have today, we can eradicate the disease," he told reporters during a phone briefing.

After a decade of marked decline in incidence and mortality from malaria, the latest data from the WHO show that progress is stalled.

Malaria has infected 219 million people in 2017, including 435,000 deaths, the vast majority of whom are infants and children from the poorest region of Africa.

This represents little change from 2016, but the number of malaria cases worldwide has steadily decreased from 239 million in 2010 to 214 million in 2015, and the number of deaths from 607,000 to approximately 500,000 between 2010 and 2010. and 2010. 2013.

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