- Title: [SW News] (Xinhua) Malaria Costs Africa Billions of Dollar Every Year: WHO
- From:[]
- Date :[]Tue, 8 Feb 2000 10:52:12
Malaria Costs Africa Billions of Dollar Every Year: WHO
Story Filed: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 1:23 PM EST
ADDIS ABABA (Feb. 8) XINHUA - The World Health Organization (WHO) said here
Tuesday that Black African countries expend more than two billion U.S.
dollars annually to malaria control and treatment program.
The money are usually spent on purchases of drugs, mosquito nets and
insecticides, WHO said in a report presented to the on-going Rolling Back
Malaria Conference.
It was reported that the epidemic malaria annually claims 2.7 million lives
in the world, many of the victims in Black Africa.
The WHO said population movement due to natural calamities and wars into
malaria epidemic areas made the disease to be a major killer of refugees in
Africa.
Ethiopia, one of sponsors of the three-day conference, said it has been
allocating over 3.7 million U.S. dollars annually for anti-malaria efforts.
The Ethiopian Health Ministry attributed the rampant malaria in the country
to, among others, climatic changes, population density and resistance of the
disease to drugs.
Copyright (c) 2000, Xinhua News Agency, all rights reserved.
[ News] |