Malaria cases drop as households increase use of bednets

The number of reported malaria cases in Eritrea has fallen by 85 percent over the past five years due to the increased use of free bednets provided by the government, an official told IRIN. Tewolde Ghebremeskel, head of Eritrea's National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), said on Thursday the reported cases of malaria at Eritrean health facilities had fallen from almost 180,000 in 1999, to 28,000 in 2004. "In Eritrea, there are around 2.2 million people who live in the malaria-prone areas," said Ghebremeskel. He added that reported fatalities had also fallen from 176 in 1999 to 16 in 2004. "We have distributed more than one million treated bednets in the last four years," he added. Christian Balslev-Olesen, UNICEF country representative to Eritrea, said: "It is not a matter of whether or not you can afford it and definitely it has paid off. Eritrea came as the most successful [African country in reducing malaria], because of the distribution of bednets." A 2004 survey jointly conducted by several government departments showed that 79 percent of households had at least one bednet, treated or untreated with insecticide. It found that 62 percent of households had re-treated their nets with insecticide in the past six months. However, the report added that improvement could still be made on the early treatment of malaria cases. Only 7.5 percent of children under the age of five who had a fever or malaria in the two weeks prior to the survey had received treatment within 24 hours of the onset of the illness. "It is not really easy to go to a health facility within 24 hours and seek treatment," said Ghebresmeskel, noting the distances involved between villages and health facilities. Four years of consistent drought, he added, may also have contributed to the decline in malaria. "The main factor is really the control measures," he said. Insecticide-treated nets have been shown to reduce malaria transmission by as much as 90 percent and child mortality by up to 20 percent, according to the UN. Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. Initial symptoms include fever, shivering, headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches and fatigue, which can rapidly progress to organ failure, delirium, convulsions, coma, and often, death. At least 300 million acute cases of malaria occur around the world each year, causing more than a million deaths. About 90 percent of these deaths occur in Africa, where malaria kills a child every 30 seconds, according to UN figures. The fight against malaria in Africa got a boost in 1998 when leaders from the continent launched the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership with the goal of reducing the burden of malaria by half by 2010. In April 2000, African states signed the Abuja Declaration to translate the RBM goals into tangible political action. The goals included ensuring access by 60 percent of malaria-affected people to correct, affordable, appropriate treatment within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms and ensuring that 60 percent of pregnant women had access to intermittent preventive treatment. "[Eritrea] has actually surpassed most of the Abuja targets," said Ghebremeskel, who noted that Eritrea had also been working on the control of mosquito breeding sites and community information programmes. The last recorded malaria epidemic in Eritrea was in 1998, Ghebremeskel said, adding that despite Eritrea's successes, the disease would not be beaten forever if Eritrea's neighbours did not contain the disease.