Anti-malarial drugs sent to save children in Niger
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that it was sending 100,000 anti-malarial drugs to Niger to save malnourished children from the deadly mosquito-borne infection now in its peak season.
“For Niger’s children, malaria represents just as big a threat as hunger at present,” said Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, director of WHO’s Roll Back Malaria Department.
Malaria is already the leading cause of death of children under five in the west African country, where aid agencies are trying to feed 3.6 million hungry people following drought and locust invasions.
Some 262 children out of 1,000 die before reaching their fifth birthday in Niger, with malaria responsible for 50 percent, according to the United Nations agency. The child mortality rate is the second worst worldwide after Sierra Leone.
“The fact that children are malnourished leaves them much more vulnerable to this disease. Doctors and health workers can also miss the malaria diagnosis because they will be taking care of the malnutrition,” WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a briefing.
WHO teams have arrived in Niger to train 40 health workers to administer artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), the most effective drug treatment against falciparum malaria, the deadliest form of the disease, which is found in Niger.
Niger is among 40 countries in Africa—where a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria—to have switched to using ACT drugs rather than traditional, cheaper treatment such as chloroquine to which mosquitoes have developed resistance.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has donated 50,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets for distribution in Niger. Sleeping under a treated net is a highly effective prevention.
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