Citing a massive increase in programs to combat malaria, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported Tuesday a strong drop in malaria cases in 11 African countries. WHO said in Geneva that the scale-up in malaria control programs between 2008 and 2010 included the provision of enough insecticide- treated mosquito nets (ITNs) to protect more than 578 million people at risk of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Indoor residual spraying had helped to protect 75 million people, or 10 per cent of the population at risk in 2009, dpa quoted the WHO report as saying. "The results set out in this report are the best seen in decades," commented WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. "After so many years of deterioration and stagnation in the malaria situation, countries and their development partners are now on the offensive. Current strategies work." The results were encouraging in Africa, where a 11 countries showed a greater than 50 per cent reduction in either confirmed malaria cases or malaria admissions and deaths over the past decade. WHO also said there had been a drop of over 50 per cent in the number of confirmed cases of malaria in 32 out of 56 malaria-endemic countries outside Africa during this same period. Downward trends of 25 to 50 per cent were seen in a further eight countries. "The phenomenal expansion in access to malaria control interventions is translating directly into lives saved, as the WHO World Malaria Report 2010 clearly indicates," said Ray Chambers, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Malaria.
