JEDDAH, 28 August 2006 — Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie yesterday emphasized the government’s determination to eliminate malaria which kills more than a million people worldwide annually.
“The Kingdom will mobilize all its resources to fight malaria in the southern regions such as Jizan and Asir as well as in townships such as Qunfuda and Laith in the Makkah region,” he told reporters.
Opening a nationwide campaign to combat malaria in Jizan, he said no malaria cases had been reported in any part of the Kingdom. “We will use all means available to fight the disease,” he stated. “We have reached an agreement with Yemen to allow our anti-malaria teams to enter that country and spray insecticides,” Al-Watan Arabic daily quoted him as saying.
The minister said the Kingdom had provided $10 million and 10 vehicles to Yemen in order to combat malaria in the Yemeni provinces situated along Saudi borders. He said employees engaged in combating malaria would be given a 15 percent salary increase in appreciation of their efforts to fight the killer disease.
Dr. Al-Manie emphasized the need for enhancing the health awareness of people living in villages along the border. The ministry’s teams have already sprayed insecticides in all villages of the Jizan region with the participation of 1,127 workers and 186 vehicles. The campaign targeted 93,452 rooms in 28,215 houses in 1,388 villages of Jizan.
Malaria is an infection caused by a parasite and is carried from person to person by mosquitoes. Symptoms include fever, shivering, arthralgia (joint pain), vomiting, anemia caused by hemolysis, hemoglobinuria, and convulsions.
According to a report, malaria causes about 350-500 million infections in humans and about 1.3 million deaths annually (at least one death every 30 seconds).
The vast majority of cases occur in children under the age of five. Pregnant women are also vulnerable. The death rate is expected to double in the next 20 years. Precise statistics are unknown because many cases occur in rural areas where people do not have access to hospitals or the means to afford health care. Consequently, many cases are undocumented. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 85-90 percent of malaria fatalities, but it is also prevalent in northern South America and South and Southeast Asia. Malaria is more common in rural areas than in cities; this is in contrast to dengue fever in which urban areas present the greater risk.
Malaria affects the health and wealth of nations and individuals alike. In Africa today, malaria is understood to be both a disease of, and a cause of, poverty. Malaria has significant measurable direct and indirect costs, and has recently been shown to be a major barrier to economic development.
Annual economic growth in countries with high malaria transmission has historically been lower than in countries without malaria. Economists believe that malaria is responsible for a “growth penalty” of up to 1.3 percent per year in some African countries. When compounded over the years, this penalty leads to substantial differences in GDP between countries with and without malaria and severely hinders the economic growth of entire regions.
