Dagnachew Teklu
21 August 2007
Addis Ababa — Some 344,000 children under five will die of preventable causes including malaria in Ethiopia this year, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.
Ethiopia is a country where over 50 million people are living under malaria threat each year.
UNICEF, one of Ethiopia's partner's in combating Malaria, indicated malaria remains the country's major health challenge that needs immediate action both by the government and those local and international organizations working on health.
Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF representative to Ethiopia said Ethiopia in collaboration with its health partners has distributed 18 million nets over the past few months providing protection for 9 million households in what is said the largest campaign of its sort in Africa.
The country plans to raise the distribution to 20 million in the coming three and four months, which will enable Ethiopia to reduce the number of children died annually from malaria.
Malaria, a major public health problem in Ethiopia, accounts for up to 20% of deaths in children under-five.
"No children need to die of malaria and with the success of the millennium Anti-Malaria campaign, we are on the verge of achieving a remarkable milestone for child survival in Ethiopia," Ljungqvist said.
"We must however, maintain the momentum and ensure continued support for anti-malaria interventions in order to maintain sufficient quantities of new nets to replace those that wear out." In order to support the ongoing malaria campaign, the government of Japan donated on Monday $ one million to UNICEF for the prevention of infectious diseases among children in Ethiopia.
"Young children and pregnant women are most at risk from the severe effects of malaria. We believe that the fight against infectious diseases is the main health agenda of the time," said Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia Kinichi Komano According to available information, out of an estimated 9 million malaria cases annually, only 4-5 million will be treated in a health facility. The remainder will often have no medical support.
It is estimated that only 20 per cent of children less than five years of age that contract malaria receive treatment.
P. Falciparum and P. Vivax are two common malarial parasites in Ethiopia.
Number of people dying in a 9-month malaria epidemic (e.g. 2003) was 114,000.
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