Malaria cases fall in the world, Mozambique and Angola account for 7%

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Malaria cases fall in the world, Mozambique and Angola account for 7%

8:25 CAT | 14 Dec 2016

According to the WHO, sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected by malaria. Although in 2015 more than 429,000 people died of the disease, the death rate worldwide has dropped nearly 30 percent since 2010.

WHO figures nonetheless indicate that Mozambique and Angola are among the eight countries with the highest number of deaths from malaria in the world, together accounting for 7 percent of global fatalities.

“We have made excellent progress, but our work is incomplete. Last year alone, the global balance of malaria reached 212 million cases and 429,000 deaths,” the report signed by the Director-General of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan says.

The global incidence rate (new cases) of the disease fell by 41 percent between 2000 and 2015, while the death rate declined by 62 percent globally over the same period.

Among children under five, the death rate has dropped by 69 percent in the last 15 years, although malaria has killed 303,000 children under five worldwide. In that same period, 17 countries eliminated malaria altogether. Ninety percent of malaria cases are in sub-Saharan Africa, which has 92 percent of deaths.

Good news

Despite this frightening number, there are glimmers of hope. Fifty-one per cent of children with fever using public health care in 22 African countries were subjected to a malaria diagnostic test, while in 2010 only 29 per cent were.

Agentes de pulverização em campanha contra a malária, em Moçambique — Mozambican team getting ready for a door to door spraying of homes

The percentage of pregnant women who received the three recommended doses of preventive malaria treatment also increased five-fold, from 6 percent in 2010 to 31 percent in 2015.

Another positive is the population now living with mosquito net treated with insecticide or protected by residual vaporization is 57 percent , up from 37 percent in 2010.

Angola and Mozambique with high incidence

Despite these advances, WHO warns that 43 percent of the population at risk in sub-Saharan Africa is not yet protected by primary methods of malaria control, and its report reveals that Angola and Mozambique are among the eight countries with the highest number of malaria deaths in the world, representing 7 percent of the global burden of the disease.

In Angola last year, according to the WHO, 3.1 million new cases were registered, compared to 2.4 million in 2010, while 14,000 people died, the same number as five years earlier.

The percentage of people at risk who sleep protected by mosquito nets has reached 40 percent, according to the WHO.

For its part, Mozambique recorded 8.3 million new cases in 2015, compared to 9.3 million in 2010, while 15,000 people died last year. Five years ago, the number was 18,000.

The reduction in the number of cases and deaths compared to 2010 could be due to the fact that more than 60 percent of the Mozambican population now sleeps with insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

Other Portuguese speaking countries

Among other Portuguese-speaking countries, Cape Verde had fewer than 50 cases and fewer than 10 deaths in 2015, while Timor-Leste recorded 120 cases and fewer than 10 deaths in 2015.

Cape Verde is highlighted as one of three countries in the world (along with Zambia and Zimbabwe) where more than 80 percent of the at-risk population sleeps protected by mosquito nets or residual vaporization.

The archipelago and Timor-Leste, according to the WHO, are in a position to eliminate malaria over the next five years.

The document notes that São Tomé and Príncipe should have been declared free of the disease in 2016, but this did not happen. The country registered 3,400 cases and less than 100 dead in 2015, against 4,900 cases and less than 100 dead in 2010.

Guinea-Bissau, on the other hand, saw cases drop from 170,000 to 160,000, although the death toll rose from 670 to 680 in the last 10 years.

In Brazil, the report estimates, the number of new cases fell from 440,000 to 180,000 between 2010 and 2015, while the death toll dropped from 98 to less than 50 in the same period.

The WHO report reveals that Nigeria is the country where the highest percentage of people die from malaria, with 26 percent of all deaths, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo with 10 percent.