Although malaria-related deaths have been declining, a new report in The Lancet puts a damper on this good news, suggesting that the decline is not nearly as significant as we had thought. According to the new study, there were 1.2 million deaths from the mosquito-borne disease in 2010 a number almost twice as high as the estimate published in the World Malaria Report 2011.
For this study, researchers at the University of Washington s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation combed through all available malaria mortality data from 1980 to 2010. They found that malaria deaths worldwide climbed from 1 million in 1980 to a peak of 1.8 million in 2004 a number that s partially explained by the population increase in malaria-endemic countries during that time period. From this peak number, global malaria deaths have fallen to 1.2 million in 2010 an impressive decrease, but not as drastic as had previously been calculated.
Furthermore, the new malaria research demonstrates that, contrary to earlier thought, a significant number of malaria deaths actually occur in older children and adults. While African children under the age of five remain the hardest hit accounting for 700,000 malaria deaths in 2010, or 56 percent of the world s total over a third of all deaths from malaria occurred in adults. As the authors of the new study report, That malaria is a previously unrecognized driver of adult mortality also means that the benefits and cost-effectiveness of malaria control, elimination, and eradication are likely to have been underestimated.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross takes this increased estimate of malaria mortality as a call to bolster efforts made by all world health authorities to combat this disease. We have the means to dramatically reduce the number of malaria cases and deaths, he says. We need to encourage and promote the full spectrum of effective measures against malaria, including rapid diagnosis and treatment, insecticide-treated bednets, and indoor residual spraying of small amounts of insecticides such as DDT which remains the most effective mosquito killer and repellent and is completely safe for humans. He adds that, unfortunately, the environmentalist crusade against DDT is one of the best examples of how a misguided campaign can actually sacrifice human lives.
ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan adds that these new data will also help to illuminate a neglected aspect of malaria: The toll of adult malaria episodes, numbering in the hundreds of millions, sucks the life out of many national economies that are struggling to rise from poverty.
