25 April 2012
Malaria remains a huge threat to the lives of millions of people in the developing world and is one of the UK Government's biggest priorities. Over 655,000 people continue to die from the disease every year. And yet it is both treatable and preventable.
Today, on World Malaria Day, we look at the progress that has been made to combat the disease, the challenges that lie ahead and how the UK Government is responding.
Care in the community
Fatimah Ibrahim is a 30-year-old mother of four who has brought her youngest, six-month-old Humaida, with her to a bustling health centre in Minna, the state capital of Niger State, Nigeria.
Role model: Fatimah Ibrahim and baby Humaida. Picture: Daniel Peters / Malaria Consortium
"I've come to collect my supply of drugs," she smiles. But the ACTs (Artemisinin Combination Therapy, used to treat malaria) she is fetching aren't needed by Fatimah or her little daughter. Fatimah is a community caregiver – a volunteer who gives basic malaria treatment to children under five years of age and advises on its prevention. It's a very important task in her rural area, where mothers would otherwise find it very difficult to access medical services.
"The parents keep bringing their children. Sometimes I see ten people a day," she says.
In Nigeria, where virtually the whole population is at risk from malaria, UK aid is funding a five-year programme managed by the Malaria Consortium to implement a comprehensive approach to malaria control. One of the many ways it does this is by supporting and funding the training of community caregivers like Fatimah.
"It is very important that their parents should bring the children as soon as they spot signs of fever, and after that make sure they take the medicine correctly," she says.
Fatimah can treat the majority of her small patients straight away. "If the drugs are taken according to instructions, most of the time children won't need to be referred to a health facility. I ask the parents to come back and tell me whether the baby has got better or not. If I treat once, and they still have fever, then I do refer them.
She has many satisfied customers. "I see many people who say: 'when my baby had a fever, you treated her and she got better'. Then they recommend me to others. This saves a lot of money and many hours work for the health facility."
Fatimah believes that the rate of malaria is going down in her area, too.
A key priority
The UK remains committed to tackling malaria in Nigeria and elsewhere in the developing world by helping to ensure the developments that have been made in preventing and treating this disease reach the people who need them, when they need them.
Every year, UK aid delivers millions of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets to help protect people from getting malaria in affected countries. We have provided 20 million bednets to Kenya alone since 2001, contributing significantly to the 40% reduction in child deaths the country has seen over the past five years. And in Nigeria UK aid will contribute to over eight million more children under 5 sleeping under a bednet in 2015 than in 2008.
If people do get malaria, it can be effectively treated with existing drugs, particularly artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs). Unfortunately, a large proportion of people who get malaria can't afford treatment because it's too expensive or can't access treatment because the health centre is too far away.
UK aid is working hard with its partners and governments in malaria affected countries to increase the availability and use of ACTs. One approach that UK aid is helping to test is the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm) which aims to subsidise the cost of ACTs in some of the poorest countries to make the most effective malaria treatment more widely available.
International Development Minster Stephen O'Brien makes the UK's commitment clear:
"Tackling malaria is a key priority for the UK Government. Our continued investment in malaria prevention, diagnosis, treatment and research will help to sustain the progress that has been made in fighting this terrible disease, and ensure British aid will help to halve malaria deaths in ten of the worst affected countries by 2015.
"Is unacceptable that thousands of people - mainly children - continue to die every year from a disease that is not only curable, but preventable."
Success through innovation
The number of people dying from malaria in Africa has fallen by a third over the past decade. Success in Africa and elsewhere is down to good investments and innovation:
Bednets treated with insecticide have proven to be a cheap and effective way to prevent bites from infected mosquitoes.
Easy to use Rapid Diagnostic Tests, which detect malaria parasites in the blood and can give a positive or negative result within 15 minutes, are making it easier to diagnose malaria quickly and accurately, ensuring that people who have malaria are accurately diagnosed and treated and those who do not have malaria receive the right treatment for their illness, preventing over-use of malaria drugs.
And highly effective malaria drugs - Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs) – which combine the key ingredient for treating malaria, artemisinin, with other effective drugs have saved over 730,000 lives in Africa alone.
The results show the tremendous efforts and dedication of people around the globe to bring an end to this terrible disease.
Challenge ahead
But despite these and other successful interventions, malaria continues to kill more than 655,000 people each year. Every single one of these deaths is preventable.
With new threats looming, such as emerging resistance to artimisinin in some countries, our continued investment in both proven and new tools to tackle malaria is vital to ensure the gains that have been made in tackling this disease so far as sustained.
Find out more
To hear more about why tackling malaria is a key priority for the UK Government, the progress that has been made so far, and the challenges that lie ahead, listen to a World Malaria Day podcast from DFID's Chief Scientist, Chris Whitty.