Many more malaria deaths due to Ebola

After Ebola, malaria is now increasingly raging in West Africa

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After Ebola, malaria is now more prevalent in West Africa. The tropical disease transmitted by mosquitoes can often be prevented by simple preventive measures such as mosquito nets. In addition, there are effective drugs for the prevention and treatment of the disease, but these are only partially available in the most affected developing countries. Left untreated, malaria can be fatal. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only one in five children in Africa receives antimalarial drugs. That's why among the approximately 500,000 malaria deaths annually, there are still many girls and boys. The collapse of health systems following the Ebola epidemic has dramatically worsened the already difficult situation.

Malaria could cause more deaths than Ebola
On the occasion of World Malaria Day on April 25, WHO calls for further efforts in the fight against tropical diseases. "We need to recognize that we need to further expand prevention, diagnosis and treatment to reduce people's suffering from malaria," said Deputy WHO Director-General for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Tropical Diseases, Hiroki Nakatani.

"We have to take the fight against malaria to the next level. Exterminating the disease requires high-level political engagement and robust funding, including substantial new investments in disease surveillance, health system strengthening and further research, "said Pedro Alonso, WHO Director of the WHO Malaria Program. "In addition, we urgently need new tools to address new drug and insecticide resistance, as well as innovative approaches that accelerate progress."

The WHO also pointed to the achievements in the fight against malaria. Thus, "more than four million victims have been prevented since 2001". However, the Ebola epidemic led to a severe setback. This is also confirmed by a new study, which called for up to 10,900 additional malaria deaths in 2014. The collapsed healthcare systems in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have made preventive measures and the treatment of malaria patients partially impossible, the researchers report Patrick Walker from Imperial College in London in the journal "The Lancet". According to the WHO statistics, about the same number of people died of malaria in the three countries as Ebola itself. So far, according to WHO statistics, Ebola claimed almost 11,000 lives.

Scientists calculate impact of the Ebola epidemic on number of malaria deaths
The researchers created a model calculation based on the malaria data from the past 15 years. From this, they deduced how much medical treatment affects illnesses. According to the researchers, there were up to 3.5 million additional untreated malaria cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia due to the sporadic distribution of mosquito nets and preventive drugs.

"The ongoing Ebola epidemic in parts of West Africa in 2014 already overwhelmed poor health systems and made adequate malaria treatment impossible," cited the news agency "dpa" Patrick Walker. That could destroy the successes of the past ten years in the fight against malaria in West Africa.

According to the study, the number of malaria deaths in Guinea increased by a good third by 5,600, in Sierra Leone by about 3,900 (plus 50 percent) and in Liberia by about 1,500 (plus 62 percent). (Ag)

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