Malaria

Malaria affects half of the world’s population causing over three quarters of a million deaths per year. It is an infection caused by the malaria parasite entering the bloodstream – usually through the bite of an infected mosquito.

Malaria has a particularly devastating effect in Africa, where over 90% of malaria deaths occur – as this map shows.

In Africa, malaria is a leading cause of child mortality, responsible for one in six child deaths – claiming the life of a child every 45 seconds.

Making malaria no more…

Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease. We need to:
Malaria is preventable and treatable. Every life lost is needless. Malaria deaths can be prevented using a combination of effective tools including mosquito nets; malaria tests and medicines.

485 African children’s lives saved from malaria every day in 2010.

We are part of a global movement to reach near zero deaths from malaria by 2015.

We fund programmes and partners in Africa who use a combination of malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment initiatives to combat the disease. We also support and promote innovation and research into new tools to fight malaria, including using new technology; developing new insecticides, medicines and vaccines.

Preventing Malaria

Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease.

Nets: stop mosquito bites
Mosquito nets are the first line of defence against the deadly bite of a malarial mosquito. We know that the latest long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) save lives, they have been proven to cut malaria cases in children by half as well as reducing child deaths by 20%. The use of these nets can also help protect other people sleeping nearby who are not sleeping under a net. It’s estimated that when 80% of people sleep under a net, the entire community is protected. A £10 donation to Malaria No More UK can buy, deliver and hang two mosquito nets to protect a family of four in Africa from malaria.

Educate: knowledge is power
As bed nets are supplied, our partner organisations will teach people to use them consistently and properly. This will help build a net focussed culture with a community-wide understanding of the protective value of nets and the right way to use and maintain them. When a net culture is in place, people know how to prevent malaria, when to seek medical treatment and how to access effective treatment. The result: less sickness, fewer deaths and stronger communities.

Testing: find it to kill it
Malaria parasites in the blood can best be detected under a microscope, but, where one is not available malaria cases can also be quickly and accurately identified using a Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT). RDTs are disposable pin-prick blood testing kits which can be administered anywhere and provide an easy to read result (showing positive or negative for malaria) in just a few minutes. RDTs mean that accurate and potentially life-saving diagnosis of malaria, previously only possible in hospitals with lab facilities, can now be made available at the smallest health facility, at a pharmacy or even in the community.

Successes So Far

Malaria is a preventable disease and a number of African countries have already proved that dramatic successes can be realised. In 11 of these African countries, including Rwanda, Zambia and Eritrea, malaria deaths have been reduced by over 50% in just a few years by using bed nets and medicines.

• Since 2000, over one third of the 108 malarious countries across the World have reduced the number of malaria cases by more than 50%
• International funding for malaria has risen from $35 million in 2000 to almost $1.9 billion in 2009 – a fortyfold increase

Ethiopia
In 2004, Ethiopia started giving out nets for free: the number of households with a net went from 3% in 2005 to 66% in 2007. In the same year, the government made drugs available to the whole population free of charge and testing became a priority.

• A third of the population now lives in malaria-free areas.
• Between 2004 and 2008, the number of reported cases of malaria more than halved (948,587 in 2004 – 422,248 in 2008).
• In 2006, 60,000 people died from malaria. But by 2008, this had been reduced by two-thirds to under 20,000 deaths.

Rwanda
In the first half of the 2000s, malaria was getting worse in Rwanda. Then, over a two-month period, nets and drugs were delivered all across the country – normally it takes years to produce this kind of net distribution. . In September 2006, the Ministry of Health gave 1.96 million nets to children along with a measles vaccination. The next month, ACTs were introduced nationwide. Within months, malaria cases and deaths fell between 52% and 67%

Eritrea
Twenty years ago, the death toll among pregnant women with malaria was very high. Today, it is non-existent. Over a five-year period, the number of people getting malaria fell by an enormous 80%; the number of people with nets went up by thirteen times.

Facts And Figures

Half the world’s population is at risk of malaria, 781,000 people die of malaria every year and it affects the most vulnerable financially too.

• A child dies every 45 seconds of malaria.
• Over 90% of the 781,000 malaria deaths are in Africa
• 8% of all children who die before their fifth birthday die of malaria
• 40% of public health spending in some African countries affected by malaria is spent on the disease
• Malaria costs Africa over £8 billion a year in lost economic output
• It is estimated that up to 200,000 newborns die each year as a result of malaria in pregnancy and malaria can cause anaemia and death for pregnant women
• 40% of drug expenditure in affected countries is spent on malaria drugs

But with your help, we can save lives

• International funding for malaria has risen from $35million in 2000 to almost $1.5billion in 2009 – a fortyfold increase
• Almost a million lives have been saved in Africa since 2000 thanks to malaria controls
• With full funding, up to 4.2 million lives could be saved by 2015 in the 20 highest burden African countries alone
• Since 2000, over one third of the 108 malarious countries have reduced the number of malaria cases by more than 50%
• 11 African countries reported declines in the number of cases and deaths of 50% or more. Eritrea, Rwanda, and Sao Tome and Principe, for example, achieved this reduction within five years of starting a malaria control campaign
• Household net ownership reached more than 50% in 19 malarious African countries in 2010
• £5 is enough to buy, deliver and hang a mosquito net for a family in Africa, helping protect two people from malaria.
• 11 African countries are on track for eliminating malaria

This web site maps the risks of malaria by country and globally.