New strategies have to be developed to combat malaria and prevent the disease killing an increasing number of people and stifling economic development in malaria-endemic regions, a health expert said on Sunday.
Gerald Keusch, director of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria, said the number of people effected by malaria -? which kills 5 000 children daily — is already increasing because the disease is becoming more resistant to drugs and because of changes in the environment.
”Unless new strategies are developed, death and illness due to malaria will increase. The disease will continue to be a substantial barrier to the economies and social development of the malaria-endemic regions and a threat to the millions of people who travel to these regions each year,” he said.
Keusch was speaking at the opening of conference on malaria in this northern Tanzanian town which is being organised by the Fogarty International Center of the US National Institutes of Health.
More than 900 experts are expected to attend the conference, which organisers are hailing as the biggest malaria conference ever. Progress in malaria vaccine development is to be a major theme of the meeting.
Malaria kills an estimated 2,7-million people each year, 75% of whom are African children aged under five. It costs the world’s poorest continent billions of dollars in health care and lost productivity, the organisers say.
Andrew Kitua, director-general of Tanzania’s National Institute of Medical Research, called on rich nations to assist African countries in the fight against malaria.
”Africa has no time to waste,” he said. – Sapa-AFP