The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed grave concern over the rising cases of malaria across Africa. The world’s health authority stated that Africa in 2021 recorded 234 million cases and 593 000 deaths from malaria.
It has attributed the situation to its discovery that a substantial population of the continent lack access to healthcare facilities and also incur huge expenditures to obtain healthcare.
The global agency expressed the concern in a statement to commemorate World Malaria Day 2023. The theme of this year’s Malaria Day is “Time to Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement”.
It partly reads: “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 per cent of cases and 96 per cent 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”.
WHO said nearly that 30 per cent of the population in most African countries cannot access essential health services, and most people face unacceptably high expenditures on health care.
“Significant inequities affect the most vulnerable, young children and women, whereas about 80% of malaria cases and deaths occur in children under five”, it said.
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.
