Kigali — A report from the World Health Organisation reveals that despite the disease remaining one of the biggest burdens facing the continent, Rwanda is one of the countries on the African continent to reduce cases of deaths related to malaria by over 50 percent.

The World Malaria Report 2008 released in Geneva on Thursday shows an improvement in reducing cases of malaria across the continent, a development which analysts attribute to increased coverage of malaria control measures and funding in recent years.

Rwanda is one of the three African countries which, for the first time, have reported dramatic reductions in malaria deaths by 50% or more. The other two are Eritrea and Sao Tome and Principe.

The trio has achieved progress in reducing malaria cases between 2000 and 2006/2007 through interventions such as mosquito net distribution, in-door spraying, improved access to treatment and advancing in disease surveillance.

Other African countries where significant improvements have been observed include Madagascar, Zambia, D.R. Congo and the United Republic of Tanzania.

"With dramatic increases in funding and intense momentum towards reducing the malaria burden in recent years, we have a greater need for reliable information and analysis. This report begins to answer that need. Progress in malaria control has accelerated dramatically since 2006, especially in the wake of the UN Secretary-General's call for universal malaria control coverage by the end of 2010. We expect these expanded efforts to be reflected in future reports," said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan.

The World malaria report 2008, which draws upon data collected between 2004 and 2006 and the first half of 2007, paints a complex picture highlighting new methods used to estimate that the number of malaria cases in 2006 were 247 million out of the 3.3bn people at the risk of contracting malaria.

One million deaths occurred and small children remain by far the most likely to die of the disease.

Malaria deaths have declined in several countries with many African nations managing to reduce deaths to half by following the recommended measures.

Since 2006, more funding has resulted into accelerated measures to reduce the devastating effects of malaria.

The use of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) recommended by WHO to replace previously used anti-malarials such as Fansidar and Chloroquine has been effective, though it has reached only 3% of children in need. The report finds that recent increase in malaria funding has helped by increasing the usage of mosquito nets.

The percentage of children protected by insecticide-treated nets increased almost eightfold, from 3% in 2001 to 23% in the 18 African countries where surveys were held in 2006.

Procurement of anti-malarial medicines by states has also increased sharply between 2001 and 2006.

About 100 million people, including 22 million in Africa, have had their houses protected by indoor spraying of insecticide. Rwanda is among the states that carried out nationwide in-door insecticide spraying. However, experts are quick to warn that much more work remains to be done.

In Africa, only 125 million people were protected by bed nets in 2007, while 650 million are at risk and malaria remains the primary cause of child mortality, according to Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

"If the availability of bed nets and other key interventions can be increased, lives can be saved," notes Veneman.

The official called upon states to embark on rigorous awareness campaigns to educate people about the benefits of sleeping under nets, since many people are not aware.

"We know that malaria control interventions work and that we can make rapid progress towards ending malaria deaths. Now is the time to expand these results to all of Africa and the rest of the world," said Ray Chambers, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Malaria.

According to data from national malaria control programmes, Africa by far had increased funding than any other region between 2004 and 2006/7.

The investments were led by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and supported by bilateral and multilateral organisations and national governments.

The United States leads the bulk of countries that have donated large sums of money towards malaria eradication. In other regions, sources of funding have been highly variable, but national governments provided the bulk of funds.