PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Abuja | Tuesday 9.50am.
LEADERS from dozens of African countries gathered in Nigeria on Tuesday for the world’s first summit focused on malaria and were expected to commit to halve the one million death toll from malaria in the next ten years.
Malaria, prevalent on the Indian sub-continent, in sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia and parts of the Americas, kills more than one million people every year, 90% of whom are Africans.
More than 500 million cases of the disease occur every year and 2500 children under the age of five die of malaria every day. Children and pregnant women are the most vulnerable to the disease.
The costs of the disease are borne in deaths and economic under-development, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said before opening the summit being co-hosted by Nigeria and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Malaria traps the people of Africa in poverty,” Obasanjo told leaders of the only continent where the disease is spreading fast. “It stops adults earning a living and children from going to school. Each year families spend the equivalent of several months’ earnings on malaria treatment and prevention,” he said.
“It does not have to be like this. Malaria is preventable, treatable and curable,” he added.
Some 14 heads of state and dozens of government representatives were due in Nigeria for the summit, along with representatives of leading UN and international organisations.
Opening a technical session on Monday preparing for the summit Nigerian Health Minister Tim Menakaya said malaria was the greatest killer of Africans.
“The burden of malaria has continued to increase, ravaging our communities, resulting in disabilities and death, especially in children and pregnant women,” Menakaya said.
“The socio-economic impact of malaria manifests as devastation of the labour force and depletion of the meagre household incomes of victims,” he said.
The objectives of the summit, he said, were to inform heads of state and governmment about the economic and social costs of malaria, provide ideas about ways of tackling the problem and commit the continent to reducing the death toll from malaria by half by 2010, he said. — AFP