Two experts from WHO’s ‘Roll Back Malaria’ programme have arrived in Burundi for a two-month spell to support efforts to combat malaria effectively, OCHA Burundi reported on Friday. The two were part of a 42-member team conducting interventions in those parts of Africa and Asia hardest hit by malaria, it said. The health NGO Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) has asked WHO to support the use of a combination of anti-malarials on the basis of Artemisinine derivatives, it added. MSF has described at “unprecedented” in its reach and magnitude the current malaria epidemic in six of the 16 provinces in Burundi. Over 700,000 cases were registered in November, and WHO reported over 600,000 registered cases in December, OCHA said. An MSF survey in the northern province of Kayanza in the last quarter of 2000 revealed “alarmingly high” mortality rates among those infected, and especially among under fives, it added.
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