Africa is not on track to eliminate malaria by 2030, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.
According to the Malaria Progress Report, 2021 shared by President Kenyatta at the ongoing Africa Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the continent did not achieve its target of reducing malaria incidence and mortality by 40 per cent by 2020. Only six member states achieved at least one of the targets.
President Kenyatta, who is also the chair of the Africa Leaders Malaria Alliance (Alma), said it is time to stop fully depending on development partners and increase domestic funding for malaria.
“Lack of funding and international development partners shifted focus from malaria to Covid-19 were the main challenges that prevented us from meeting the target.
“We urge international partners to know that malaria in Africa kills more than Covid-19. An estimated 600,000 Africans, mostly children under five, died of malaria,” said President Kenyatta at a press briefing on the sidelines of the meeting.
There were an estimated 232 million malaria cases in Africa (96 per cent of global total) and 611,802 malaria deaths (98 per cent of global total) in 2020, an increase of 68,953 deaths compared to 2019. A total of 49,000 of these deaths were attributed to disruptions to malaria programmes and broader health services caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to revised World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, the number of malaria deaths is significantly higher than previously understood, increasing the urgency of controlling and eliminating malaria.
While the successes of the past few years have certainly narrowed the number of cases and deaths attributed to malaria, stagnating financial support, weak health systems, and lack of adequate domestic financing and multisectoral approaches are among key challenges plaguing the fight against the disease.
According to Dr Abdourahmane Diallo, chief executive officer of the RBM partnership to end malaria, the impact of humanitarian emergencies caused by climate change and political unrest, and growing threats of drug and insecticide resistance are threatening the continent’s ability to make progress
“Malaria is fast becoming an almost exclusively African disease. Four out of five malaria cases in children under five occur in the continent. Before Covid-19, tremendous progress made in the malaria fight has slowed and cases are once again rising in high burden countries.
“International funding plateaued and there was a need to reach more people, save more lives, prevent more cases with the same amount of resources. Covid-19 made it harder to prevent and treat malaria and as such, for the first time in over a decade, malaria deaths increased globally,” he said.
But despite all these challenges, significant progress in the war against malaria has been made in the last two years, noted President Kenyatta. He attributed this to a four-point programme implemented by Alma.
“When I assumed the chair of Alma, I came up with a four-point legacy agenda and the four key initiatives included digitisation, scorecard accountability and action plans, multi-sectoral advocacy, action and resource mobilisation, regional coordination and access to life-saving commodities,” he said.
President Kenyatta said it was progressive to see African countries embrace the use of digital tools.
“It is notable that countries continue to expand the use of digital tools to strengthen evidence-based accountability and action in the fight against malaria,” he said.
During the pandemic, Kenya, Malawi, and Ghana reached more than 800,000 children under two years with the first ever malaria vaccine known as RTS,S or Mosquirix.
The approval of the vaccine means that countries have an additional tool to help combat the disease, alongside existing interventions such as indoor residual spraying, insecticide-treated mosquito nets and seasonal malaria chemoprevention.
