WHO calls for strengthening malaria elimination strategy, says 3.2 billion people still at risk
The World Health Organization today called for bolstering efforts for malaria control and elimination by targeting malarial parasites believed to be less fatal, but now causing high disease burden. As nearly 3.2 billion people continue to live in areas with risk of malaria infection, malaria needs to be high on the global agenda to achieve the target of 90% reduction in deaths and disease, and elimination in 35 countries by 2030. “Our efforts so far focused on the most deadly P. falciparum malaria. We need to now broaden our strategy to include targeted interventions for P. vivax malaria, which is contributing to a large proportion of global malaria burden, mainly in the WHO South-East Asia Region,” Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, said at a global malaria meeting here. Of the 18.9 million P. vivax malaria cases reported in 2012, nearly 13 million were from countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region, mainly India. “We need targeted strategies for P. vi