‘Malaria can be stamped out within a generation’

‘Extra $2 bln per year needed’

LONDON, Sept 9, (Agencies): Malaria can be eradicated within a generation and the World Health Organization (WHO) should not shy away from this “goal of epic proportions”, global health experts said on Sunday.

In a major report that contradicted the conclusions of a WHOled malaria review last month, 41 specialists said a future free of malaria – one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases – can be achieved as early as 2050.

To meet that target, however, governments, scientists and public health leaders need to inject more money and innovation into fighting the disease and the mosquitoes that carry it, the report said – something that will require “ambition, commitment and partnership like never before”.

“For too long, malaria eradication has been a distant dream, but now we have evidence that malaria can and should be eradicated by 2050,” said Richard Feachem, director of the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco, who co-chaired a review of malaria eradication commissioned by The Lancet journal.

“We must ... challenge ourselves with ambitious targets and commit to the bold action needed to meet them,” he added.

The Lancet Commission’s view comes a few weeks after the WHO published its own report on whether malaria can be wiped out, concluding that eradication cannot be achieved any time soon, and that setting unrealistic goals with unknown costs and endpoints could lead to “frustration and backlashes”.

In contrast to the Lancet Commission, the WHO report said the priority now should be to lay the groundwork for future eradication “while guarding against the risk of failure that would lead to the waste of huge sums of money (and) frustrate all those involved.”

The Lancet report, however, said that rather than slogging on with steadily reducing malaria cases – all the time under the threat of resurgence – global health authorities could “instead choose to commit to a time-bound eradication goal that will bring purpose, urgency and dedication” to the fight.

Malaria infected about 219 million people in 2017 and killed around 435,000 of them – the vast majority babies and children in the poorest parts of Africa. These totals are little changed from 2016, but global case numbers had previously fallen steadily from 239 million in 2010 to 214 million in 2015, and deaths from 607,000 to around 500,000 from 2010 to 2013.

“Malaria continues to strip communities around the world of promise and economic potential,” said Winnie Mpanju-Shumbusho, a Tanzanian doctor who co-chaired The Lancet Commission. She said malaria eradication was “a public health and equity imperative”.

To stamp out the disease by 2050, the report’s authors proposed three ways to speed up malaria’s decline.

Existing malaria-fighting tools such as bednets, medicines and insecticides should be used more smartly, it said, and new tools such as vaccines should be developed. Thirdly, governments in both malaria-affected and malaria-free countries need to boost investment by about $2 billion a year to accelerate progress.

Swine fever:

Lab tests have confirmed that African swine fever caused the deaths of pig herds in at least seven villages near Manila and a multi-agency body will be set up to ensure the highly contagious disease does not spread further, Philippine officials said Monday.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar said at a news conference that 16 of 20 blood samples sent to a British lab tested positive for the disease but further tests were needed to ascertain the virulence of the virus.

“What hit us we don’t know among the 35 strains,” Dar said, referring to the different viral strains with varying lethality. He appealed to journalists to help the government prevent public alarm that could hurt the local hog industry.

More than 7,400 pigs have been culled in farms in villages in Rizal and Bulacan provinces that were feared to have been hit by the viral infection in recent months. The Department of Agriculture is verifying reports of infections in other areas, Dar said, but he refused to identify the areas.

Despite confirmation of the infections, Philippine authorities are in control of the problem and will further tighten quarantine checks, including in airports and seaports, and crack down on smuggling of imported meat to prevent largescale outbreaks, officials said. They assured that pork supply and prices will remain normal.

“The hog industry is one of the more critical industries in the country. Let us not allow it to be affected in a big way,” Dar said. “Everything that has to be done by government with the help of the private sector is being done.”

The Philippines is the latest country to be hit by the disease, which has ravaged pig herds in Asia, with hard-hit China and Vietnam culling millions of pigs and scrambling to find a vaccine to contain infections that have ravaged their bustling swine industries.

BOSTON:

Also:

US Sens Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren are pressing federal health officials on research efforts to combat eastern equine encephalitis.

The two Massachusetts Democrats this week sent a letter to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within the National Institutes of Health seeking the current state of federal research into EEE and whether research into other viruses could help lead to better treatment for the mosquitoborne infection.

Two new human cases of EEE were confirmed in Massachusetts this week, bringing the total this season to seven.

One of the previously announced cases was fatal.

There are now 36 communities statewide at critical risk, 42 at high risk, and 115 at moderate risk.