WHA Adopts Resolution to End Malaria

In News 

Recently, the 74th World Health Assembly (WHA) has adopted a new resolution to accelerate efforts to end malaria.

About 

• The resolution aims to urge Member States to step up progress on containing the disease, in line with WHO’s updated global malaria strategy and the WHO Guidelines for malaria.
• It called on countries to expand investment, scale-up funding for global response and boost investment in research and development of new tools.
• Significance: It sends a very strong signal that countries around the world are committed to scaling up action towards a common goal: a world free of malaria.

About Malaria

• Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by Plasmodium parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
• It is preventable and curable but sometimes results in a fatality.
• It claims more than 400,000 lives annually.
  •  The world reported an estimated 229 million cases of malaria and 409,000 deaths in 2019.

• The WHO said an estimated 7.6 million deaths and 1.5 billion cases had been averted since 2000, but the global gains in combating malaria have levelled off in recent years.

• Symptoms: Fever and flu-like illness, shaking chills, headache, muscle aches, and tiredness. Sometimes Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea may also occur.

• Prevention and Cure: Vector control is the main way to prevent and reduce malaria transmission.
  • Antimalarial medicines are used to prevent malaria e.g. Chemoprophylaxis, artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT).
  • RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) is the world’s first malaria vaccine developed by Malawi that shows partial protection against malaria in young children.

• Global Efforts: The WHO Global Malaria Programme is responsible for coordinating WHO’s global efforts to control and eliminate malaria.
  •  Its work is guided by the “Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030” adopted by the WHA in May 2015.
  • Under this, WHO’s global technical strategy provides a technical framework for all malaria-endemic countries working towards malaria control and elimination. Its global targets for 2030 include:
    • Reducing malaria case incidence by at least 90 per cent

• Reducing malaria mortality rates by at least 90 per cent
• Eliminating malaria in at least 35 countries
• Preventing a resurgence of malaria in all malaria-free countries

• A new country-driven response – “High burden to high impact” – was launched in Mozambique in November 2018. It will be supported by WHO.

• India’s Effort to Combat Malaria: Malaria Elimination Efforts were initiated in 2015 and were later brought under the National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) in 2016.
  • Nodal Agency: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination for 2017-22 was launched in July 2017 which laid down strategies for the control of the disease.

Source: DTH