By Omolola Afolabi
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that the Coronavirus pandemic could severely halt access to anti-malaria nets and drugs in sub-Saharan Africa.
It warned that Malaria deaths risked doubling if efforts are not urgently scaled up.
The UN health agency called on countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly 95 per cent of all the world’s malaria cases and deaths occur, to rapidly distribute malaria prevention and treatment tools before they become too overwhelmed with novel Coronavirus cases and therefore difficult to manage.
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“Severe disruptions to insecticide-treated net campaigns and access to antimalarial medicines can lead to a doubling in the number of malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa this year compared to 2018,” the WHO warned, citing new modelling analysis.
“Under the worst-case scenario, in which all campaigns to distribute insecticide-treated nets are suspended and there is a 75 per cent reduction in access to effective antimalarial medicines, the estimated tally of malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 will reach 769,000,” WHO said.
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