New Delhi (NVI): Amid the rapid emergence and spread of COVID-19 globally, the world cannot afford to ignore other killer diseases such as Malaria, according to the UNICEF.
Coronavirus pandemic is creating massive disruptions that are impacting people’s lives and wellbeing, says the UN body while warning that the overlap of Covid-19 and Malaria could have potentially lethal consequences for children under-five “if we don’t respond soon to ensure continuity of services”.
THE UNICEF released a status update on children on Malaria Day yesterday in which it underlined that the social distancing necessity and restrictions/curbs imposed by Covid-19 could jeopardise years-long efforts to eradicate a deadly disease like Malaria.
“Over the past two decades, substantial work has been done to dramatically control malaria by ministries of health, national malaria control programs, district health offices, health facilities and community health workers. However, despite major gains, even before the onset of COVID-19, sub-Saharan African countries were already falling short of the global target of universal use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets,” UNICEF said in its report.
It further recommended that sleeping under insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) on a regular basis is one of the most effective ways to prevent malaria transmission and reduce malaria-related deaths. Consistent use of an effective insecticide-treated net – particularly one that is long-lasting – by at least 80% of the population living in endemic areas can result in up to 20% reductions in child deaths, it said. This translates into up to 6 lives saved for every 1000 children sleeping under a mosquito net, it added.
Every two minutes, a child under the age of five dies from Malaria, says UNICEF in its report while citing a 2019 World Malaria Report which says that children under five accounted for 67 per cent of all malaria deaths worldwide in 2018.
“Most of these over 272,000 deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa where approximately 24 million children were estimated to be infected with the deadliest form of malaria. In addition to being the third highest infectious disease killer of children, malaria infection and the costs of treatment traps families in a cycle of illness, suffering and poverty,” it said.
On the Covid-19 outbreak, the UN agency said that public health officials are taking precautionary and often aggressive measures to limit transmission of this virus, including reductions in social movement, physical distancing, hand washing and recommending the use of personal protection equipment in high-risk settings.
“However, while focusing on combating this disease, the world cannot afford to ignore other killer diseases, such as malaria. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa showed starkly that constraints on health services due to response measures led to substantial increases in malaria infections, illness and death,” UNICEF said in its report.
WHO has also released some modeling related to the potential impacts of COVID-19 on the malaria burden.
UNICEF has taken this one step further and produced “Malaria in Children” snapshots for the 10 High Burden, High Impact countries in sub-Saharan Africa which together represent 93% of the global malaria-related under-five deaths (over 250,000 children) every year.
These snapshots include the latest available data on malaria with a focus on children and pregnant women.
The data released by UNICEF includes charts that describe the burden of malaria cases and malaria deaths in the country, showing the proportion of all malaria cases and deaths that occurred among children under the age of five, the proportion of all child deaths that were attributable to malaria and current coverage levels of key malaria interventions for pregnant women and children. These charts provide an indication of variations in coverage levels of these interventions by urban-rural location and by wealth quintile.
The data also presents projections of all malaria cases and deaths from 2018 to 2020 under certain scenarios of intervention coverage disruptions due to COVID-19.
The UN agency has said that appropriate Covid-19 measures can be taken by authorities and decision-makers across the world by considering the data and projections, while also making sure that the threat posed by a deadly disease like malaria is not undermind.
