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Morbidity &Mortality Bill Brieger | 19 Sep 2008 05:29 pm

Malaria cases reduced … through better statistics

For years the standard figure of malaria morbidity has been half a billion cases a year. Now, “The World Health Organization halved its estimate of the number of people who get malaria each year, saying Thursday that better measurement techniques had cut the number from 500 million people to 247 million.”

world-malaria-report-2008.jpgPrevious figures apparently were based on estimates that mapped where people were likely to be exposed to malaria, but data collection is deemed to be more accurate in 2006, the most recent information as presented in the new World Malaria Report 2008.  Even with reduced morbidity, “WHO left unchanged the figure of malaria deaths. An estimated 881,000 people were killed by malaria in 2006 — most of them were children under 5.” But even with better data, “Less than one-third of the agency’s 192 member countries have acceptable registration of malaria cases and deaths.”

Science Magazine cautioned that, “the report’s authors say that the drop isn’t a sign we’re winning the battle, just that the methodology of gathering data is better.” Health statistics are challenging. Science also noted that, “Determining the burden of malaria is notoriously hard because many patients don’t seek or receive medical attention, and even if they do their case may not be lab-confirmed or entered into government statistics. One result is that WHO’s numbers have huge error bars: For instance, the estimate for Kenya ranges from 5 million to 19 million cases.”

Robert Snow of the University of Oxford, U.K. and the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Nairobi was quoted by Science as sayingthat “WHO still relies too heavily on weak government data, resulting in too rosy a picture.” Fortunately donors are recognizing more and more the importance of strengthening malaria data and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity in endemic countries.

The Global Fund offers M&E guidance and encourages countries to write into their proposals means for strengthening their health information systems. Countries do not always take full advantage of these health system strengthening components. Partners should therefore, continue to provide guidance and encouragement to countries to improve their M&S and health statistics so that the next World Malaria Report will truly reflect both reality and hopefully progress.

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