World Malaria Report 2022

Why in News?

• The World Malaria Report 2022 was recently released by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Highlights

• High-burden malaria countries maintained a strong front against the disease in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic, with cases and deaths stabilising.
• While deaths came down to 619,000 in 2021 from 625,000 in the first year of the pandemic, it remained higher than the pre-pandemic level of 568,000 deaths in 2019.
• As for Malaria cases, the upward trend continued but at a slower rate — 247 million cases in 2021, compared to 245 million cases in 2020 and 232 million in 2019.
• Among the 11 high-burden countries, five — the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Niger and the United Republic of Tanzania — recorded a decline in deaths.
• But these countries continued to contribute heavily to the global disease burden.
• Insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) are the key vector control tool used by endemic countries.
• Prevalence of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Pregnancy (IPTP) has remained consistent in 2021 as compared to 2020
• Hurdles impeding the process of ending Malaria include – mutating parasites which can evade rapid diagnostic tests, increasing drug resistance and the invasion of an urban-adapted mosquitoes, especially in Africa.
• New tools and fundings to deploy them are urgently needed to help defeat malaria.
• Malaria is a life-threatening mosquito borne blood disease caused by plasmodium parasites.
• It is predominantly found in the tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, South America as well as Asia.
• It is preventable as well as curable