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8 November 2010

Southern African Development Community (SADC) commemorates malaria this week (8 – 12 November 2010)

Within the SADC region, malaria week is commemorated during the second week of November.  The primary aims of the week are to heighten the awareness of malaria within the region and to reinvigorate the fight against this dreaded disease.  Despite being a totally preventable and controllable disease, malaria remains a severe public health burden, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in five childhood deaths is a result of malaria.

Besides threatening the lives of millions, malaria also negatively affects the GDP of most malaria endemic countries by dramatically decreasing productivity.  According to the Abuja Declaration (April 2000), malaria had restricted economic growth in most African countries by an average of 1.3% on an annual basis.  This has resulted in African countries having a GDP at least 37% lower than it would have been in the absence of malaria.  In response to the malaria threat within the SADC region, SADC Ministers of Health signed the Abuja Declaration, whose goal is to halve malaria related morbidity and mortality by 2010. 

The Malaria Research Programme is currently involved in a variety of research projects aims at ensuring effective and efficient malaria control measures are implemented across the SADC region.  Research includes the routine surveillance for molecular markers associated with either antimalarial drug resistance or insecticide resistance, behavioural studies of malaria vector, developing more effective databases to assist with the monitoring and mapping of malaria cases within the region, to name just a few.

“Anybody bitten by a malaria infected mosquito runs the risk of contracting malaria,” says Dr Rajendra Maharaj, Director of the MRC Malaria Research Programme.  He went on further to state that children under the age of 5, pregnant women, elderly people and people with compromised immune systems, however had the greatest risk of contracting malaria.

According to Dr Maharaj, you can avoid contracting malaria by:

• Ensuring you take the correct antimalarial prophylactic treatment when visiting a malaria endemic region.
• Applying effective insect repellents.  Repellents containing at least 40% DEET (diethyl-meta-toluamide) have been found to be very effective.
• Sleeping under insecticide treated bednets when possible.
• Wearing protective clothing (socks, long sleeved shirts and trousers) or stay indoors during dusk and dawn when the malaria mosquito is most active.

For more information please visit: http://www.mrc.ac.za/malaria/malaria.htm