Download malaria: a reemerging disease in africa

MALARIA: A REEMERGING DISEASE IN AFRICA
Adeyemi Opeyemi, student of 5th course
Scientific leader - senior teacher S.V. Pavlicheva
Sumy State University, Department of hygiene, ecology and social medicine
Malaria is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions including parts of the Americas, Asia and Africa. The
global malaria eradication program of the 1950s and 1960s suffered serious setbacks in the early 1970s, and the
disease was slowly increasing in areas of Asia and South America where the number of cases had been reduced to
low levels. A recent upsurge of malaria in endemic-disease areas with explosive epidemics in many parts of Africa
is probably caused by many factors, including rapidly spreading resistance to antimalarial drugs, climatic changes,
and population movements. Strategies for control should have a solid research base both for developing antimalarial
drugs and vaccines and for better understanding the pathogenesis, vector dynamics, epidemiology, and
socioeconomic aspects of the disease.
In the last decade, the prevalence of malaria has been escalating at an alarming rate. An estimated 300 to 500
million cases each year cause 1.5 to 2.7 million deaths, more than 90% in children under 5 years of age in Africa.
Malaria has been estimated to cause 2.3% of global disease and 9% of disease in Africa; it ranks third among major
infectious disease threats in Africa after pneumococcal acute respiratory infections (3.5%) and tuberculosis (2.8%).
Cases in Africa account for approximately 90% of malaria cases in the world. According to WHO report in 2008
about 23 946 817 people were found to be at risk. There are three principal ways in which malaria can contribute to
death in young children. First, an overwhelming acute infection, which frequently presents as seizures or coma
(cerebral malaria), may kill a child directly and quickly. Second, repeated malaria infections contribute to the
development of severe anaemia, which substantially increases the risk of death. Third, low birth weight which is
frequently the consequence of malaria infection in pregnant women constitutes the major risk factor for death in the
first month of life. In addition, repeated malaria infections make young children more susceptible to other common
childhood illnesses, such as diarrhea and respiratory infections, and thus contribute indirectly to mortality. It is
estimated that the total (direct and indirect) malaria mortality is at least twice as high as the direct malaria mortality.
As a result, children under 5 are the most vulnerable group for malaria mortality. The distribution of deaths due to
malaria by age and sex shows a high peak among children under 5 years, who accounted for almost half (48.2%) of
the total malaria deaths.