Malaria Statistics 2008-2012

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QUESTION

What are the malaria statistics for 2008-2012?

ANSWER

Without more information, I am assuming you would like statistics on malaria cases and deaths for 2008-2012. The best data on malaria comes from the World Health Organization, which retrospectively publishes its best estimated for malaria in its annual World Malaria Reports. Each report publishes the figures from the previous year, and the 2012 report has not yet been published, so at this point the WHO can only provide data for 2008-2010. It is also worth mentioning that as more information is collected, past estimates can sometimes be revised, but here I will present the figures from each annual report itself, rather than longer retrospective estimates.

In 2008, the number of cases was estimated at 243 million, with 863,000 deaths. In 2009, the report did not explicitly summarize the number of cases, but reported that deaths were down to approximately 781,000. In 2010, the number of cases and deaths both dropped yet further, to an estimated 216 million cases and 655,000 deaths. Despite these gains, the aim is to work towards a world with no malaria deaths at all by the year 2015, so much control work remains to be done.

How Many Affected by Malaria

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QUESTION

About how many people in the world are affected, die and survive malaria?

ANSWER

It has been estimated that about 3.3 billion people, or close to half the world’s population, is at risk of malaria infection at least at some point during the year. However, preventative measures mean that many fewer actually contract malaria in a given year—still, there are an estimated 216 million cases of malaria every year; of these, about 655,000 patients die. Most of these in children under the age of five, and most in sub-Saharan Africa.

How Many Malaria Deaths in Africa?

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QUESTION

What is the estimated number of deaths in Africa caused by malaria each year?

ANSWER

The exact numbers of deaths caused by malaria every year is very difficult to measure accurately, due to difficulties in diagnosis and also failure to report cases. However, the Roll Back Malaria partnership, coordinated by a host of international organisations including the World Health Organisation, estimates that last year approximately 801,000 people died of malaria in Africa, which represents over 90% of the total annual worldwide deaths. Of those, the vast majority of victims were children under the age of five.

Malaria Deaths by Country

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QUESTION

Where are the most deaths of malaria?

ANSWER

Over 90% of the deaths from malaria occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and in children under the age of five. According to the World Health Organisation’s 2011 World Malaria Report, the countries with the five highest numbers of reported malaria deaths for 2010 are (and number of reported deaths): Kenya (26,017 deaths), Democratic Republic of Congo (23,476), Tanzania (15,867), Burkina Faso (9,024) and Uganda (8,431).

However, it is important to note that this indicates the number of reported deaths that were confirmed as malaria; there are other countries in Africa which may have similar levels of malaria mortality but insufficient health infrastructure for accurate diagnosis of cause of death or reporting. Even in countries where reporting levels are high, causes of death are not always accurately determined.

Malaria Transmission and Deaths in the United States

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QUESTION

How do you get malaria? How does malaria come to the United States? How many people have died from malaria?

ANSWER

Malaria is caused by infection with single-celled parasites called Plasmodium. There are five different species which infect humans; of these, Plasmodium falciparum is the most deadly. The Plasmodium parasites are transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito; when these mosquitoes bite a human, they transfer some of the parasites in their saliva.

After undergoing one set of multiplications in the liver, the malaria parasites are released into the blood, where they repeatedly infect and destroy red blood cells, multiplying in the process. These cycles of infection and destruction of red blood cells cause the cyclical fever that is characteristic of malaria. Eventually, the parasite produces new types of cells, called gametocytes; if the patient is then bitten by another mosquito, the mosquito can take up gametocytes as well as blood when it feeds, and the cycle continues.

Malaria used to be relatively common in the United States, though usually only occurring during the summer months and restricted to the warm, wet south-eastern region. However, a concerted control campaign in the 1940s, focusing mainly on vector control (i.e. killing mosquito and reducing their opportunities for breeding) swiftly led to the eradication of malaria from the US.

Nowadays, virtually all malaria cases in the US are imported from abroad, whereby people get infected when traveling to other countries, but are only diagnosed as having malaria when they return home. There are about 1,000 cases of malaria reported each year in the US, and most of these were actually caught outside the US. Very rarely, an Anopheles mosquito will bite one of these travelers once they have returned from abroad, and therefore have the potential to transmit malaria within the US. However, due to a strong public health network and good access to malaria diagnosis and treatment, these events rarely lead to more than a handful of cases before they are quickly treated and transmission eliminated again.

The World Health Organisation estimates that last year, approximately 700,000 people died of malaria. Of these, 90% were in sub-Saharan Africa, and the vast majority were children under the age of 5.

How Many People Have Died from Malaria?

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QUESTION

How many people have died from this disease today? (2011)

ANSWER

Estimates for the number of annual deaths from malaria vary, and are not very accurate since they depend heavily on the quality of reporting. Since the majority of people who die from malaria are in sub-Saharan Africa, and often far from decent health facilities, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether someone died of malaria or some other cause. The latest data available are for 2010 (2011’s statistics will be published some time in 2012): World Health Organisation estimated that last year approximately 655,000 people died from malaria, which was a decrease of 39,000 from 2009 and a drop of 25% from 2000. It is expected that the number of deaths will continue to fall in 2011. Organisations such as Malaria No More are dedicated to ending all deaths from malaria by the year 2015.

If you have ever taken anti-malaria medication, please take Malaria.com’s brief Malaria Medication Side-effects Survey: Treatment and Prophylaxis.

Is it Common to Die of Malaria?

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QUESTION

is it common to die of malaria? Why? Why not?

ANSWER

Thankfully, these days it is not very common to die from malaria. Out of an estimated 250 million cases of malaria around the world every year, there are only about 700,000 fatalities. However, 700,000 deaths every year is still a lot!

If left undiagnosed and untreated, malaria can progress very rapidly and be a very serious disease. This is particular true of Plasmodium falciparum, a specific type of malaria which is found throughout tropical regions in South America, Africa and Asia.

It is dangerous because it reproduces very rapidly in the body and can cause red blood cells to clog up inside blood vessels in organs, restricted blood flow. When this occurs in blood vessels in the brain, the patient may suffer “cerebral malaria,” which can rapidly lead to loss of consciousness, coma and even death if not treated promptly.

The people most at risk from malaria are children under the age of 5 and pregnant women, and so it is particularly important for these people to seek medical care very quickly if they suspect they have malaria.

On a positive note, deaths from malaria are becoming less common around the world due to a number of factors. First of all, there have been many very successful prevention strategies, for example through distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated bednets to at-risk communities living in malaria endemic regions. Indoor residual spraying with insecticides have also drastically reduced the number of mosquitoes in households where this procedure has been carried out, thus reducing transmission. Moreover, improvements to point-of-care diagnostics and other health infrastructures have enabled poor people in developing countries to have access to ways in which their infections can be diagnosed, and then given the appropriate treatment. All of these measures have brought the number of annual deaths down from 1 million just a few years ago to 700,000 today.

The goal is yet more ambitious: organisations such as Malaria No More seek to eliminate deaths from malaria, all over the world, by the year 2015. So, we hope in 2015 we can add to this answer by saying it is now very rare indeed to die from malaria!

Deadliest Malaria Parasite

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QUESTION

which malarial parasite is deadliest for humans, and why?

ANSWER

By far the most deadly malaria parasite is Plasmodium falciparum, as it is responsible for >95% of all malaria deaths every year. Most of these fatalities occur in young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

The causes for why P. falciparum is so deadly are still not fully understood. This parasite has the ability to cause infected red blood cells to become “sticky”, and therefore clog up small blood vessels called capillaries inside the body’s organs. This process is known as “sequestration”. Sequestration reduces blood flow to major organs, resulting in a variety of secondary conditions, perhaps the most famous well-recognized of which is so-called “cerebral malaria”, where oxygen flow to the brain is reduced and as a result of this and other effects of sequestration, impaired consciousness, coma and even death can occur.

Why is malaria dangerous?

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QUESTION

Why is malaria dangerous?

ANSWER

Malaria is dangerous because if left untreated, it can be deadly. This is particularly true of Plasmodium falciparum, which can rapidly escalate into severe disease with cerebral (brain) complications.

However, other forms of malaria, such as P. vivax and P. knowlesi, can also be fatal if untreated. The people most at risk from severe malaria are pregnant women and young children; in addition pregnant women who contract malaria are at risk of passing the disease to their foetus either during pregnancy or during birth (so-called congenital malaria) which can have negative effects on the baby, such as poor growth and low birth weight.

Malaria Deaths in the Tropics

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QUESTION

What’s the difference of malaria deaths between the subtropical and tropical regions and all the other regions?

ANSWER

I am assuming you are asking about the distribution of deaths caused by malaria between the tropics/sub-tropics and the rest of the world.

95% percent of all fatal malaria cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, which lies entirely in the sub-tropics and tropics. Additionally, most of the deaths occur in Central, West and Eastern Africa (North Africa and South Africa have more advanced malaria prevention and control initiatives to the rest of the continent, and transmission is also less severe), and the other 5% of malaria deaths are mostly found in India and south-east Asia, so you could say that virtually all deaths due to malaria occur in tropical regions alone.

Indeed, there is almost no malaria in non-tropical or sub-tropical regions; the few cases each year in North America and Europe are usually due to imported cases from people who have traveled to tropical or sub-tropical regions.