A rchive Date
[ 25-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Kenya ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/04/25/73111-ap.html
Malaria kills 3,000 children a day in Africa, UN agency report says
By RODRIQUE NGOWI
Fri, April 25, 2003
NAIROBI (AP) - Malaria kills 3,000 children in Africa a day and drains billions of dollars from the continent's economy each year, even though its spread can be easily controlled, a UN agency said in a report released Friday.
The parasitic disease kills more than a million people a year in Africa and has developed resistance to chloroquine - the cheapest and most commonly used treatment, said a report by the UN World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund.
Resistance is also developing to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, the drug routinely used to replace chloroquine, the report said. Regardless, the spread of malaria can be controlled and those afflicted with the disease treated for a fraction of the $12 billion US malaria is estimated to cost Africa each year, the report said.
The most effective treatment for malaria is artemisinin-based combination drugs, the report said. Each treatment costs $1 US to $3 US. The death of newborn babies can be prevented by giving pregnant women anti-malarial drugs as part of normal prenatal care, the report said.
However, government health care spending is low in most African countries - typically less than $15 US per person a year.
Despite the cost of treatment, the spread of malaria can be easily controlled.
Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes. Draining puddles and other stagnant water - the breeding ground of the insects - around dwellings can reduce its spread, the report said.
Sleeping under nets treated with insecticides can cut transmission by more than half, the report said.
However, "most of the costs of preventing and treating malaria in Africa today are in fact borne by people themselves," the report said. And the price of the nets - about $5 US each - "still puts this life-saving technology beyond the reach of" the vast majority of people living on the world's poorest continent.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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