MALARIA PANDEMIC KILLS 2 MILLION PER YEAR
24 June 2004

Anti-malaria activist and missionary groups report malaria is world's unseen pandemic, killing millions but largely unnoticed in the developed world. In April 2003, the United States' Department of Health and Human Services reported that malaria "affects an estimated 500 million people and results in up to 2 million deaths each year", with 90 percent of those deaths concentrated in Africa. The same report estimates an average of 3,000 children are killed every day in Africa by malaria parasites.

Much of the developed world has focused on the possibility of a re-emergence of polio in West Africa, leaving many in Africa bewildered as to the relatively lax action being taken to combat the malaria pandemic. The Vicentian Family Against Malaria group reports further on details related to the disease and its insidious effects on society at large. Their report quotes Dr. Wenceslaus Kilama, Chairman of Malaria Foundation International, saying "The Malaria epidemic is like loading up seven Boeing 747 airliners each day, then deliberately crashing them into Mt. Kilimanjaro."

Such strong language strikes some as emotional, but it would be hard to overstate the severity of anything that kills 2 million people per year and is threatening the long-term viability of civil structures across an entire continent. Daniel Okenu's report "An Integrated Approach for Malaria Control in Africa" notes that 1 million African children die each year from malaria, and the disease makes up 10 percent of Africa's total "disease burden". Mr. Okenu adds that the economic cost is in excess of $2 billion per year. The US HHS figure rises to "$12 billion a year of lost African gross domestic product".

The 2003 Africa Malaria Report designates malaria "the single biggest cause of death of young children in Africa" cites disturbing signs of an escalating risk of concentrated malaria epidemics across the continent. Warning that 110 million Africans live in at risk areas, the report says: "The increasing frequency of epidemics in both low-risk areas and areas of moderate transmission make imperative the institution of special responses to epidemics" adding that "Timely response may include the deployment of additional drug stocks, use of different drugs, and vector control."

The introduction to this WHO, UNICEF report shows that nearly all of Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from pervasive, endemic malaria incidence, with risk of epidemic outbreaks spreading beyond the most affected regions. Charts embedded in this report clearly illustrate the vastly disproportionate degree of suffering imposed on Africans by this disease.

The need for newer drug treatments and for more inexpensive drug distribution solutions, has prompted the creation of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), through which governments and global organizations seek to supplement government funding of healthcare in the most heavily impacted countries, in order to reduce the constant social and economic shock of widespread death from these diseases.

Despite growing awareness in the wealthier nations about the plight of the poorest people in the world and their nearly non-existent health-care access, many groups still cite disproportionate spending on corporate incentives and massive defense buildups, coupled with harsh free trade constraints on internal development in poorer countries, as contributing to the crisis by diverting desperately needed funds to other priorities.

Even as Pres. George W. Bush announced his new initiative to help fight AIDS, demonstrators rallied outside his campaign headquarters, noting the vast disparity between spending on development aid (less than $18 billion) and the domestic defense budget (exceeding $400 billion). Activists note a large part of the problem is the lack of understanding outside of Africa about the overall size of Africa, and therefore of pandemics that are affecting the entire continent (a sample map shows Africa exceeds the land area of China, Europe and the United States combined). [For more: AllAfrica]