The fight against malaria experienced some setbacks worldwide in 2020. The outbreak of coronavirus shifted global attention towards its fight and prevention and away from diseases such as malaria.
The result was an increase in deaths from malaria from 558,000 in 2019 to 627,000 in 2020. Also, the number of cases increased from 227 million in 2019 to 241 million in 2020. This shows a 6.17% increase in incidents and a 12.37% increase in deaths to malaria in 2020.
To put the world back on track, this year’s World Malaria Day is tagged ‘Harness Innovation to Reduce the Malaria Disease Burden and Save Lives.’ This aims to rechannel funds, efforts, and attention towards the fight against malaria to eradicate it by 2030.
Disruptions Encountered in the Fight Against Malaria
The coronavirus outbreak paused the efforts toward eradicating malaria in 2020. This setback was moderate as the WHO, in partnership with regional and national bodies, mounted responses to adapt in the face of the pandemic.
However, only 18% of the 31 countries with high-impact cases were able to complete their Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) campaigns in 2020. The year recorded 72% (159 million) of planned ITN distributions globally.
Thirteen of the 31 countries (42%) have 63 million ITNs undistributed, which spilled over to 2021. Of these 13 countries, six (46%) had a distribution rate of less than 50% by the end of 2020.
Other areas that experienced disruptions are the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) and planned Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS). Also, access to clinical services experienced moderate disruptions in 2020.
Declines in Efforts Towards Malaria
Funding for the fight was reduced in 2020 as an estimated $3.3 billion was spent, whereas the required amount stood at $6.8 billion. This created a funding gap of $3.5 billion in 2020.
Also, though the number of households with at least one ITN in Sub-Saharan Africa increased by 5% to 65% in 2020, and there was an increase in the percentage of persons sleeping under ITNs, there was a decline in the use of ITNs.
Globally, more people are at risk of malaria infections as the number protected fell from 127 million in 2010 to 87 million in 2020. The percentage of those at risk protected by the IRS declined from 5.8% in 2010 to 2.6% in 2020.
Where Nigeria Stands
Nigeria accounted for 26.7% of malaria cases and 31.8% of the total deaths globally. The number of cases increased from 60.37 million in 2019 to 64.46 million in 2020, representing a 6.8% increase. The number of deaths also increased from 187,437 in 2019 to 199,689 in 2020, a 6.5% increase within the period.
Total funding for the fight against malaria in 2020, as reported by the government from all sources dropped from $211.28 million in 2019 to $192.89 in 2020. This shows that there was an 8.7% drop in total spending.
A breakdown of the funding shows that government National Malaria Program (NMP) funding dropped from $9.9 million in 2019 to $6.1 million in 2020. Global funding to the Nigerian government dropped from $131.37 million to $116.79 million. Thus, the government NMP and global funding dropped by 38.39% and 11.06% respectively.
However, funding from USIAD remained the same for both years. This stood at $70 million for both 2019 and 2020.
In 2020, there was a drop in the number of commodities distributed in the country. ITNs dropped from 32.36 million in 2019 to 25.52 million in 2020. In 2021, the distribution of ITN continued, and as of October, Nigeria achieved just 47% of its planned net distribution for the year.
Also, rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) dropped from 26.31 million in 2019 to 15.59 in 2020. These declines show a 41.9% drop in ITNs and a 40.7% in RDTs.
Delivered Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) courses, and the number of malaria cases treated with ACT also declined in 2020. The ACT courses distributed declined from 38.24 million in 2019 to 17.89 million in 2020. ACT’s malaria cases declined from 21.25 million in 2019 to 19.9 million in 2020.
With the coronavirus pandemic pressure eased, Nigeria has to intensify its efforts to eradicate malaria as it bears one of the heaviest burdens of malaria cases across the world. In 2020, 31.9% of the global malaria deaths were from Nigeria.