Staff Reporter – The Zimbabwe Daily
According to the CEO of Goodbye Malaria, Sherwin Charles, more than 800 000 people in Africa could lose their lives if stringent measures are not taken in curbing malaria.
Charles said too much attention was now being fostered upon COVID-19 forgetting that malaria is also another pandemic.
“More than 800 000 people could die from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa this year if we continue to channel all the resources towards COVID-19.
We thought we were going to end malaria by 2030 as evidenced by the progress being made in countries like South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe but COVID-19 has disrupted that.
Malaria is fully treatable and can be fully eliminated if the cause is fully supported like with the initiative that we are witnessing with COVID-19.
With the rainy season looming we need to show the world the same urgency needed in combating the epidemic like COVID-19,” said Sherwin.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) every two minutes a child dies of malaria and each year, more than 200 million new cases are recorded.
Globally, malaria is responsible for approximately two million deaths per year with 90 percent of the casualties coming from Africa and most of these are children under five years old.
