World Malaria Day is celebrated on April 25th. ‘Gender, equity in access to health, human rights’ is this year’s theme. “This disease not only directly endangers health, but also perpetuates a vicious cycle of inequality. The disease disproportionately affects those communities and social groups that are already facing economic, social and health challenges,” says the Rbm Partnership to End Malaria, the platform promoted by WHO, Unicef, the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank to coordinate global efforts to combat the disease.
In 2022, 249 million new cases of malaria and 608 thousand deaths were recorded. About 2 out of 3, equal to 460 thousand, in children under 5 years old: almost 1 per minute.
“People living in situations that make them most vulnerable, such as pregnant women, newborns, children under 5, refugees, migrants, internally displaced people and indigenous people, continue to be disproportionately affected” , explains the World Health Organization.
Children, in particular, pay the highest price. “Inequalities in access to education and financial resources further exacerbate the risk”, underlines the WHO. “Children under 5 from the poorest families in sub-Saharan Africa are five times more likely to be infected with malaria than those from the richest families.” Pregnancy also makes you more vulnerable to malaria and if left untreated “can cause severe anemia, maternal death, fetal deaths, premature birth and low birth weight.” In 2022, 16.2 million pregnant women contracted the infection.
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