“One child dies every minute” from the disease, warns Lucile Grosjean of Unicef

“There are half a million children who die every year from malaria, that’s about one every minute or so,” alerted Lucile Grosjean, director of communications and advocacy at Unicef ​​France, on Thursday April 25 on France inter, on the occasion of World Disease Control Day, which is on the rise.

In 2022, the number of malaria cases worldwide reached 249 million, five million more than the previous year, and 20 million more than in 2019, before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The vast majority of cases and deaths occur in Africa. This worrying increase is linked to the disruption of health systems during the Covid health crisis, conflicts and climate change, observes Lucile Grosjean.

Vaccination deployed in Africa

Transmitted by mosquito bites, malaria causes fever, headaches and chills until it becomes a serious, even fatal, condition in the absence of treatment, especially since the disease “comes back cyclically” throughout life, explains the director of advocacy at Unicef. “We can hope that malaria will perhaps disappear or be much less fatal,” notes the UN agency for children.

Cameroon launched the world’s first large-scale systematic vaccination campaign against malaria at the end of January with encouraging initial results, since the vaccines made it possible to “reduce infant mortality by 13% very quickly”. “It is a vaccine which takes a little time to implement because it requires four doses, but which is extremely effective”adds Lucile Grosjean. “We are really here at the start of the deployment”she specifies, emphasizing “that a dozen African countries are preparing.” “Today, there are 18 million doses that have started to be sent and the goal is to reach 100 million doses deployed within four or five years”she continues.