Malaria Continues to Ravage Africa’s Population
- Category: Health
- Date 03-07-2005
- 354 views
Tanzania ranks highest on the global malaria agenda today, both as a breeding ground for malaria infections and its devastating consequences as well as the springboard for fighting the pandemic on the African continent. The United States of America’s President, George Bush, has said action will be taken next year in Tanzania, Uganda, and Angola as a starting point to provide assistance against the high malaria prevalence in Africa.
President Bush has pledged, last Thursday, to provide US $1.2 billion through the year 2008 to help combat malaria in sub-Saharan Africa as part of what he called an eventual doubling of US aid. “America will bring this anti malaria effort to at least four highly endemic African countries in 2007 and at least five more in 2008. In the next five years with the approval of congress, we’ll spend more than $1.2 billion on this campaign,” he said, adding, “the United States has tripled overseas development aid to Africa during my presidency, and we’re making a strong commitment to the future.”
A great many lives are lost to malaria every year, as the disease kills an estimated 1.2 million people worldwide each passing year. It is instructive to note that of the global deaths from malaria recorded every year, ninety-five percent of the casualties are drawn from sub-Saharan Africa. That is to say, that almost the entire population of malaria victims are Africans.
In a move that is understood as President George Bush’s show of strong commitment to help Africa overcome its myriad of problems which have ranked its people as the world’s most pathetic persons, the White House has announced further $400 million to help improve basic education for millions of African children. In addition, $55 million was too announced to help combat sexual violence and abuse against women.
Victims of malaria are unbelievably numerous in Africa and the pandemic’s decimating character cannot be overemphasised. Malaria is a very dangerous disease and is still a leading killer of many helpless persons in most of Africa’s communities. It is actually the disease of the poor, which afflicts the most vulnerable of individuals. Pregnant women are particularly at great risk, for their immune systems and body resistance levels against disease tend to decline as pregnancy progresses.
The other affected category are Africa’s children, who are dying in multitudes at the most tender age. This has culminated in a high infant mortality rate in Africa. Subsequently, families have been conditioned to produce many children as a form of insurance. They believe that a few can still survive after malaria has taken its toll. The large families have contributed to a vicious cycle of poverty. They corrode household savings and discourage investment.
Malaria has also had a debilitating economic impact on society by way of laying off a sizeable number of labourers, who either stay away lying ill or die at productive ages. This involuntary form of unemployment, coupled with depletion of the labour force has further deepened the level of poverty among the prone communities.
We definitely cannot turn a blind eye on this malady given its negative consequences on society. Our development initiatives in Africa will remain incomplete if we do not put malaria prevention high on the agenda. The varied strategies to eliminate the mosquito in some countries like Uganda, seem to have bred a more acrimonious debate than the costly impact of malaria. To use or not to use dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane insecticide (DDT) is the question. How and when to use mosquito net sometimes becomes debatable too. Whatever the case, the problem of malaria must be underscored, and leadership need be sought to utilise donor funds profitably for the masses economically.
In a separate observation, the US President has castigated African leaders for their passivity and behaving like indolent beggars, while receiving aid. He said the primary focus would be on “reforming countries”, therefore African leaders, he said, must be “agents of reform” rather than “passive recipients of money”. While observing that the West now has an extraordinary opportunity to help end extreme poverty, President Bush said that aid to Africa would be meaningful only if African leaders made a commitment to honest government and the rule of law.
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Peering Eye, Sunday Citize