April 25, 2006 is Africa Malaria Day: Better Treatment for MalariaApril 17, 2006 - Africa Malaria Day shows solidarity every year with the continent hardest hit by malaria. This year Africa Malaria Day highlights the drive to provide greater access to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). ACTs will help to avoid drug-resistant malaria, which has undermined the effectiveness of drugs on a large scale. Malaria is an infectious disease caused by the parasite Plasmodium and carried by mosquitoes, which can transmit it to humans through their bite. According to Roll Back Malaria, about 80 percent of all malaria deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the great majority of those deaths occur in children under five. Children, pregnant women, and people with HIV/AIDS are at heightened risk for serious complications if infected with malaria. In the past, chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine were highly effective treatments, but, increasingly, they are ineffective because the parasite that causes malaria has become resistant to them. Over the past decade, scientists have developed a new class of drugs derived from the plant artemisia annua. When used correctly in combination with other anti-malaria drugs to create ACTs, artemisinin-based treatments are nearly 95 percent effective in curing malaria. At this time, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, is funding projects to provide these more effective, but more expensive drugs. Africa Malaria Day is celebrated each year on April 25, to commemorate the Abuja Summit held on April 25, 2000, at which Heads of State or senior representatives from 44 malaria-endemic countries in Africa met in Nigeria and committed to an intensive effort to halve the malaria mortality for Africa 's people by 2010. For more information:
Last revised: August 16, 2007 | 
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