April 25 marks World Malaria Day and Fight the Fakes is raising awareness on the importance of Malaria elimination!
Our partner RBM Partnership to End Malaria, joins the World Health Organisation to promote “Zero Malaria Starts With Me”, a grassroots campaign that aims to keep malaria high on the political agenda, mobilize additional resources, and empower communities to take ownership of malaria prevention and care.
In these unprecedented times, anti-malaria programmes across the world are suffering from uncertainty, jeopardizing malaria elimination efforts. Organizations working to curb and reduce the spread of malaria are exploring options to continue operations while protecting health care workers amid the COVID19 outbreak. Measures to deliver essential antimalarial services are being complicated by lockdowns and travel bans, restricting movements of health workers and causing some supply chain disruptions.
On World Malaria Day, we are using this opportunity to highlight the need to combat rising reports of falsified and antimalarials in order to eradicate malaria once and for all!
Estimates suggest that up to 60% of antimalarials circulating in sub-Saharan African countries could be fake and may contribute to over 116,000 deaths annually in the region.
Medicine for Malaria Venture reported that in 2018, 272,000 children died from to malaria. This year, this number might increase unless we ensure the continuity of malaria prevention & treatment during the #COVID19 pandemic. According to a new modelling analysis released by WHO, Severe disruptions to malaria elimination efforts could lead to a doubling in the number of malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa this year compared to 2018.
“As COVID-19 continues its rapid spread, WHO would like to send a clear message to malaria-affected countries in Africa, do not scale back your planned malaria prevention, diagnostic and treatment activities. If someone living in a place with malaria develops a fever, he or she should seek diagnosis and care as soon as possible.” – Dr Pedro Alonso, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme
Many of our partners have made it their mission to combat malaria and Fight the Fakes supports their efforts by raising awareness about the dangerous consequences of falsified antimalarials to individuals as well as the global goal of malaria elimination.
You can get involved by posting these visuals on social media to help #FightTheFakes.
