Press Conference on Launch of ‘World Malaria Report 2010’

 

While investments in malaria prevention and control had made major strides towards eradicating the disease, experts at a Headquarters press conference today said that progress remained fragile – and more remained to be done.

Participants at a joint videoconference from New York, Geneva, and Sophia, Bulgaria, included Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Margaret Chan, who launched the “World Malaria Report 2010”, the latest edition of WHO’s annual publication on malaria control and prevention.  Joining her were Ray Chambers, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria; Dr. Robert Newman, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme; and Dr. Thomas Teuscher, Deputy Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

“Investment in malaria control brings results,” said Dr. Chan, summarizing one of the key messages of the World Malaria Report 2010.  “Countries and their development partners are now on the offensive.”

After a massive scale-up in malaria control programmes between 2008 and 2010 – namely the increased provision and use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and of indoor residual insecticide spraying – both the number of cases and deaths from malaria had dropped worldwide, she said.

Overall, annual deaths from malaria fell from nearly 1 million per year in 2000 to 781,000 in 2009. In Africa, which she called “the heartland” of malaria, 11 countries showed a greater than 50 per cent reduction in either confirmed malaria cases or malaria admissions and deaths over the past decade.  The report also found a decrease of more than 50 per cent in the number of confirmed malaria cases in 32 of the 56 malaria-endemic countries outside Africa in that period.

But while the data detailed in this year’s World Malaria Report were promising, Dr. Chan warned that malaria was a complex disease that could “take full advantage of any lapse in investment, vigilance or control”.  “Progress on every front, at every level, is fragile,” she added.

Among the major risks threatening strides made in combating malaria, she pointed to the recent emergence of strains of the disease that were resistant to artemisinin – currently the only drug effective for the treatment of malaria.

Addressing that risk included discouraging artemisinin monotherapy, or the treatment of malaria with only that single drug, in favour of combination therapy. Limiting artemisinin treatment to cases that had been clearly confirmed by a diagnostic test was also essential in order to avoid over-prescribing, added Dr. Chan.  “It is no longer appropriate to assume that every African child with a fever has malaria,” she said.

Additional challenges were laid out by Dr. Teuscher, who read a message by Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. “The focus now must be on maintaining coverage,” he said, noting that that included replacing worn-out mosquito bed nets and filling remaining gaps in protection coverage.

“Over the past 10 years, scaling up malaria prevention has saved the lives of nearly three-quarters of a million children in 34 endemic countries,” he said. “Now is not the time to let the momentum wane.”

Mr. Chambers also noted the vast progress made in combating malaria worldwide.  It was estimated that by the end of 2010, over 90 per cent of the 700 million people at risk of malaria in Africa would be protected by insecticide-treated mosquito nets or indoor residual insecticide spraying.  “This is a remarkable achievement,” he said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon first set the ambitious malaria agenda in 2008 and had kept the world’s attention on that goal, said Mr. Chambers.

Additionally, he said, the success of malaria prevention and control programmes owed much to a network of partners – including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank, the United States President’s Malaria Initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners – who, through an “unprecedented worldwide collaboration”, had provided record levels of funding.

Responding to a question about the risks posed by strains of malaria resistant to artemisinin, Dr. Newman reiterated the need to press for universal diagnostic testing to avoid over-prescribing of artemisinin – which could lead to resistance.  “We are vulnerable, and we know it well,” he stressed.

He added that current research and development were focused on finding new effective classes of compounds to treat malaria.  A stage-III malaria vaccine trial was also under way, with preliminary data due soon and data from a main trial expected in 2014.

Responding to a related question on ways to counteract the sale and use of artemisinin monotherapies, he said that he had written to the heads of some 39 pharmaceutical suppliers of such drugs and had received only two responses.  The leadership of African Governments in preventing the importation and sale of monotherapies would do “more than anything else” to help combat resistance.

In response to a question about work under way to prevent a major outbreak of malaria in post-flood Pakistan, he acknowledged that major risks existed there. He said, however, that the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Office had conducted a situation analysis soon after the flood and had created an Action Plan calling for critical resources, including insecticide-treated nets.  Many of those resources had already arrived on the ground in Pakistan, he noted.

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For information media • not an official record