After seven decades of commitment and very significant results obtained since the beginning of the 21st century, the fight once morest malaria is at a crossroads.
Progress has stalled in recent years, but new tools, strategies and research avenues have emerged. And global health players are now mobilizing around the goal of reducing disease-related mortality by 90% by 20301. IRD specialists and their partners are committed on all fronts to overcoming malaria: screening and treatment of patients, protection of exposed populations, reduction of transmission and taking into account the various changes likely to influence the dynamics of the disease.
Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite called Plasmodium (see box Plasmodium, Plasmodium). This is transmitted by the bite of a vector mosquito, the female Anopheles mosquito. Formerly widely distributed over the globe, it is now mainly found in tropical regions: the environmental conditions are favorable to it, and thus to the transmission of the disease.
In 2020, the WHO estimates the number of malaria cases at 241 million – 90% of them in Africa – and the number of deaths at 627,000. Logically, much of the research and control efforts focus on the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which is very prevalent on the African continent and responsible for almost all fatal cases. Malaria, also called malaria, causes multiple flu-like symptoms, often accompanied by digestive signs. But it can also take a severe form, appearing immediately or following a lack of treatment of the disease, characterized by the failure of vital organs that can lead to death. Populations living in malaria-endemic areas can contract the disease repeatedly, and they develop partial immunity over time that limits symptoms. Young children, whose immune system is still naive, and pregnant women whose defenses are temporarily modified, pay the heaviest price in terms of morbidity and mortality. 96% of malaria victims are under the age of five.
Malaria is a multifactorial problem, linked to the level of development of the countries concerned and bringing into play both difficulties of access to diagnosis and care, poor knowledge of the disease by the exposed populations, obstacles of various kinds implementation of prevention, treatment and vector control measures.
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