EUROPE/ITALY - World Malaria Day: most at risk the weakest, children and pregnant women

Tuesday, 25 April 2017 cuamm  

CUAMM


Padova (Agenzia Fides) – On April 25 the World Health Organisation WHO marks World Malaria Day in order to increase awareness of the problem of Malaria in the world: a disease which in 2016 registered 212 million cases and 429,000 deaths. Africa is the continent most affected with 90% of the cases and 92% of the deaths. People most at risk are expectant mothers and children living in poor conditions with difficult access and use of services of prevention and treatment . “Children are most exposed to contagion, we read in a report sent to Fides by Giampietro Pellizzer, infectologist of Medici con Africa CUAMM, because they have not yet developed their immunity system, two thirds of fatalities registered due to Malaria concern children under 5: in 2015 a total 303,000 children died of Malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. However, measures of prevention and control have reduced Malaria since 2010 to today by 29% generally and 35% among children under 5. In every hospital where CUAMM doctors work, caring for patients with Malaria is a priority”. In 2016, some 206,850 persons were treated by CUAMM for Malaria in Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Sierra Leone and South Sudan. And recently a new area of intervention was opened in Mozambique, with a project launched in the Cabo Delgado province in the north of the country, (see Fides 1/4/2017)”. Thanks to this project CUAMM will work in two districts of the Balama and Montepuez province, reaching a population of 170,000 with radio, spectacles, involving local people with door to door awareness activity, as well as formation courses for local healthcare workers.
(AP) (25/4/2017 Agenzia Fides)


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