Niger: UN health agency launches emergency efforts to avert malaria crisis

Seeking to avert a second wave of deaths among Niger’s undernourished children, the United Nations health agency is dispatching 100,000 antimalarial treatments to the West African country, where the peak malaria season has begun in the midst of a humanitarian crisis stemming from drought and locusts.

“Even under ordinary conditions in Niger, 50 per cent of all deaths among children under five are from malaria,” UN World Health Organization (WHO) representative for Health Action in Crises David Nabarro said.

“Without appropriate measures the toll could rise even higher, because malnutrition makes children more likely to succumb to the disease. It also makes malaria less likely to be diagnosed, because it causes the symptoms of the disease to be less recognizable,” he added.

Malaria causes more deaths each year in Niger among children under five years of age than any other single infection. In the current crisis, some 200 000 children will remain at risk for malnutrition during the peak malaria season, which runs through October, and as many as half of them could contract malaria.

Both farmers and nomadic herders have been struck by hunger because of inadequate rains and a locust invasion in 2004, which resulted in poor harvests.

WHO will provide artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), the most effective available treatment for falciparum malaria, the deadliest form of the disease and the type found in Niger.

Because Niger only recently adopted ACTs, many of its health workers are not fully acquainted with their use and WHO last week sent a team of malaria experts. They have trained 40 health workers, who are now fanning out across the countryNiger, holding workshops on the correct use of ACTs and refresher courses on diagnosis.

As part of a prevention initiative, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has donated 50,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets to WHO.

“For Niger’s children, malaria represents just as big a threat as hunger at present. We hope our efforts will help the country to cross this difficult passage, without losing more young lives to this preventable and curable disease,” Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, Director of the WHO Roll Back Malaria Department, said.

In its latest update on the country, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that 88,600 malnourished children have been admitted to UNICEF-supported therapeutic and supplementary feeding programs.