Burden &ITNs &Morbidity Bill Brieger | 25 Jul 2014 08:12 am
Attaining and Sustaining – malaria targets
Recent reports on the Global Burden of Disease with a focus on Millennium Development Goal #6 has stressed the improvement in malaria morbidity and mortality indicators since the Abuja Declaration of 2000. In particular, “Global malaria incidence peaked in 2003, with 232 million new cases, subsequently falling by about 29% to 165 million new cases in 2013.”
The improvements are attributed in part to the large increase in funding. The remaining challenge derives in part from the fact that four countries, India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique account for nearly two-thirds of the global case load. Global progress in reducing disease has been achieved despite the fact that in these and many other countries, achievement of 2010 targets for malaria intervention coverage (80%) have lagged. In some cases national surveys have shown some declines in coverage (e.g. Nigeria).
Ghana provides a good example of the challenges. National surveys in 2006, 2008 and 2011 have shown mixed results in the use of insecticide treated nets by children below the age of 5 years. While the proportion rose from 20% to 39% between the first two surveys, it stayed steady in 2011. A new survey in underway, but as of 2012 there were still areas of the country that needed nets, and we know that nets wear out in between distributions and need to be replaced through routine services as seen in the photo.
The three surveys so far in Ghana paint a mixed picture as seen in the attached graph. In six of the ten regions, net coverage for young children declined and in four it increased over the period. This on balance led to the lack of overall improvement.
Thinking back to the reduced burden of disease overall, one can surmise that even some level of malaria intervention can impact on incidence of the disease, but the goal was no mortality for 2015, just one year from now. If the trend seen in Ghana (which is reflective of other countries) continues, we will pass 2015 without attaining the 2010 coverage targets and still experience an unacceptable malaria disease burden. Malaria elimination looks farther away each day.