An expanded World Bank malaria program has shown major progress in fighting the mosquito-borne disease, but more funding is needed if a target of reducing the disease by 75 percent by 2010 is to be reached.
As the Bank takes stock of how effective the program is, Obiageli Ezekwesili, the Banks Vice President for Africa, said there is evidence malaria cases are falling in some countries, including malaria-ridden states like Zambia where infections are at a record low. – Clearly that is progress, she noted.
Such progress, not only in Zambia, but also in Eritrea, Rwanda and Ethiopia, is forcing the Bank and others to look closer at what is still necessary to eventually eradicate malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that kills more than a million people a year in Africa.
By the end of 2007, the World Bank program will help to distribute nearly 20 million bed nets and more than 15 million doses of artemisinin -based combination therapy.
Ezekwesili said much of the success in fighting the disease has been in building malaria programs into a countrys development strategy and strengthening its broader health system.
Still, despite the funding boost given to fight malaria, Ezekwesili said it still “does not scratch the surface”. Bank figures show an additional 3 billion US dollar is needed each year to effectively fight malaria, far more than the current 800 million.
In its first two years, the World Bank’s Booster Program for Malaria Control has put in operation 19 anti-malarial projects in 18 sub-Saharan countries at a cost of almost 500 million dollar.
The World Bank programs two-year progress report, released Thursday, said about 240 million people, including more than 42 million children under 5 and almost 10 million pregnant women, are in areas covered by the Booster Program projects.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
