The Newsletter of the Pan American Health Organization - November 2005Directing Council
Malaria: Step Up the Fight
Ministers of health at the PAHO Directing Council called for stepped-up efforts to fight malaria, which threatens some 40 million people in the Western Hemisphere.
In a resolution the ministers pledged to continue their countries' support for the Roll Back Malaria initiative, begun in 1998, and to establish national policies and operational plans to enable the region to reduce the burden of malaria by at least 50 percent by 2010 and by 75 percent by 2015.
The ministers also called for annual progress evaluations for the Roll Back Malaria initiative and for the establishment of a Malaria Control Day in the Americas to raise awareness of the disease and promote efforts to prevent and control it.
A health worker in Guyana checks supplies of antimalarial medications. © Armando Waak/PAHO
Rates of malaria have declined in the Americas in recent years, but the disease is still a serious public health problem, according to a PAHO report presented to the Directing Council. Though malaria transmission has been eliminated from many areas in the region, about 1 million cases are reported annually in the hemisphere, and some 40 million people are considered at moderate or high risk for the disease. The report notes that some 250 million people in the hemisphere live in areas at ecological risk of malaria transmission.
The report points out that there are wide variations in the degree of success of anti-malaria efforts across the region. Malaria remains endemic in 21 of PAHO's Member States. Of these countries, 15 reported declines in the number of cases between 2000 and 2004, more than half of these with declines of more than 50 percent. However, six countries reported increases during the same period: Colombia (9 percent), the Dominican Republic (94 percent), Guyana (20 percent), Panama (392 percent), Peru (23 percent), and Venezuela (57 percent).
Among the factors accounting for these differences are ecological conditions, variance in diagnostic and treatment coverage, weaknesses in some countries' health systems, and variations in technical capacity.
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