Media centre

UNICEF commemorates Africa Malaria Day near Marburg victims

As Angola’s Marburg victims hit the world’s headlines, hundreds of children throughout the country die silently from malaria every day.

Luanda25 April 2005 – Today UNICEF’s Representative in Angola, Mario Ferrari, joined a delegation of the MoH and WHO travelling to the northern province of Uige, to commemorate the Africa Malaria Day and stress the need for bold action to make effective malaria treatment and prevention tools more accessible to the population.

“We have accompanied the Minister of Health to Uige as a gesture of solidarity towards the local people who are suffering so much from the Marburg epidemic,” said Ferrari. “We also want to grasp the opportunity to remind Angolans, government members and decision makers worldwide, that malaria continues to be the number one killer of children under-five here and in most of Sub-Saharan Africa.”

The mosquito-born disease is the largest single cause of ill health in Angola. In 2003 alone, at least 38,000 people died and 3.1 million were infected with malaria. Children under five were most affected group with over 40 dying every day.

During the 24-hour visit to Uige, the epicenter of the Marburg outbreak, long-lasting insecticidal bed nets were given to the population while health facilities in the province were stocked up with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) donated by UNICEF.

“Prevention, combined with early detection and adequate treatment at primary health centers, can save people from dying or having to be hospitalized,” said Ferrari. “This is particularly important now in the context of Uige where malaria symptoms may lead to a Marburg diagnosis, and unnecessary isolation.”

Scaling up and fine tuning the response to malaria disease in Angola are urgently needed.

With the support of UNICEF and WHO, the Ministry of Health has developed a five-year strategic plan to accelerate malaria reduction across the country. The plan foresees the promotion and distribution of long-lasting insecticidal bed-nets and the universal use of ACTs.

“Starting later in the year, we will distribute 1.2 million long-lasting insecticidal nets over an 18-month period. The nets will be given, free of charge, to pregnant women attending antenatal clinics and children under-one receiving their last shot of DTP vaccine,” explained Dr. Nkanga Guimaraes, UNICEF Health Officer. “Apart from protecting the families from becoming infected with malaria, we are also trying to promote the use of health facilities and enhance routine vaccination as opposed to ad-hoc vaccination campaigns,” he added.

This life-saving initiative has been made possible in Angola thanks to the contributions from the Global Fund for the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

The technology for long-lasting insecticidal nets, which embed insecticide within the net’s very fibres and therefore retain their efficacy for up to five years without re-treatment, is in high demand across Africa.

Statistics indicated that only 10% of the population using treated bed nets that need re-treatment every six months were actually doing it.

In addition, the latest generation of highly effective malaria treatments known as artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) offers a cure that overcomes resistance from malaria parasite.

“We applaud the government’s decision to replace chloroquine-based treatment with the combined therapy and encourage them to continue their preparations to ensure correct administration and follow up of this new treatment,” said Guimaraes.

Angolais part of the Roll Back Malaria initiative that was launched globally in 1998 and that aims to halve malaria mortality in Africa by 2010. Its founding partners – UNDP, UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank – agreed to share their expertise and resources in a concerted effort to tackle malaria worldwide, with a particular focus in Africa.

For further information please contact:

Macarena Aguilar, Communications Officer - 912 219 524, maaguilar@unicef.org

José Luís Mendonça Informations Officer - 912 233 468, jlmendonca@unicef.org

Español Français

Search:

Email this article