Global fight on malaria stalled: WHO-The number of cases of the killer disease climbed by 2 million to 219 million in 2017
- The World Health Organisation said global efforts to fight malaria have hit a plateau as it reported there were more cases of the killer disease in 2017 than the previous year.
- The latest WHO report showed that the number of malaria cases climbed to 219 million last year, two million higher than 2016, while international funding has declined.
- Malaria, which is spread to people through the bites of infected female mosquitoes, occurs in 91 countries but about 90% of the cases and deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Kids at risk
- The disease killed 4,35,000 people last year, the majority of them children under five in Africa.
- Another constraint in fighting malaria has been mosquitoes building up resistance to some insecticides, it said.
- WHO said it was embarking on new ways to scale up the battle against one of the world's deadliest diseases,the plan includes country-led projects to “jumpstart aggressive” control efforts.
- Most malaria cases reported last year were in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.
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