It is a sad news for all of us, that despite advance in medical sciences, the deadly ‘Malaria’ continues to take several lives every year from all across the globe.
According to the World Health Organisation, no significant gains have been chalked out in reducing malaria cases in the period ranging from 2015 to 2017.
WHO further reveals, “4,35,000 number of malaria deaths had been estimated in the year 2017.
“As the world’s leading killer, Malaria claims the life of one child every two minutes. Most out of these deaths have been reported in Africa, wherein more than 250000 children lose their lives almost every single year. Children under the age of 5 face life-threatening complications.
On this World Malaria Day, WHO has successfully launched, ' ‘Zero malaria starts with me’, a grassroot campaign to give this deadly disease, a political attention, mobilizing additional resources to tackle the same and encouraging communities to step forward to set up malaria prevention and care unit.
WHO has proudly partnered with the RBM to put an end to Malaria and also with the African Union Commission and other partner organisations that are willing to support this cause.
RULING OUT MALARIA
Just a few days ago, Malawai has launched the world’s first malaria vaccine known as RTS,S/AS01 (trade name Mosquirix), thus marking its name as the first out of the three African countries, able to provide vaccine to children up to 2 years of age. Joining the trend will be Kenya and Ghana that will introduce the vaccine during the coming week.
According to the WHO, the injectable recombinant protein-based vaccine acts against P. falciparum, Africa’s most prevalent malaria strain. The RTS,S/AS01 prevents four in 10 cases of malaria in children who received four doses over a four-year period.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “We need to come up with some new ideas to keep Malaria under check. This vaccine provides a new hope and has a great potential to protect lives of thousands of children.”
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