Brazzaville, 25 April 2012 -- African countries and communities should intensify collaborative work with their various partners for the “final push” towards universal access by putting malaria control and elimination at the core of poverty reduction strategies.
Making this call in his message on the occasion of World Malaria Day (25April), WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, said that addressing the malaria disease burden in the region required multisectoral and concerted actions of all stakeholders – governments, communities, UN Agencies, development Institutions, Foundations and  other international  partners.
In the message, released in Brazzaville on Wednesday, Dr Sambo also outlined some of the actions that needed to be taken: Increased financial and technical support to national malaria control programmes; removal of standard or counterfeit medicines form the market; rigorous monitoring of mosquito resistance to insecticides and parasite resistance to antimalarials, and research on new insecticides, medicines and malaria candidate vaccines.

The Regional Director stated that although real gains had been achieved in the fight against malaria in recent years, these gains remained fragile and complacency could lead to the resurgence of malaria where the burden of the disease had been reduced.

He noted that as a result of the growing momentum at country, regional and international levels to tackle malaria, malaria-related deaths in Africa had been cut by one third within the last ten years while child mortality had been reduced by 20% in countries where malaria control has improved most significantly.

World Malaria Day 2012 is being observed under the theme “Sustain Gains. Save lives: Invest in Malaria”. The theme draws attention to the progress made and the urgent need for adequate investment to defeat malaria.

According the latest WHO World Malaria Report (2011), the African Region accounts for 81% of the malaria cases that occurred worldwide.. Over 90% of the deaths due to the disease occur in the Region and 86% of these deaths are among children below five years of age. Pregnant women, people living with HIV and AIDS and victims of disasters are also particularly vulnerable to malaria.

For more information, please contact:

Dr Georges Ki-zerbo,
Tel: 4724139295
E-mail: kizerbog [at] afro.who.int
Samuel T. Ajibola,
Tel: +4724139378
E-mail:  Ajibolas [at] afro.who.int