MSF Fight Measles Epidemic In Malawi

FIGHTING MEASLES IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

MSF are fighting a measles epidemic in Malawi. Click here to see how.

MEASLES

Every minute a child dies of measles. Even though a safe and effective vaccine exists, outbreaks occur in many parts of the world because routine immunisation programs are not in place or efficient. In many places Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are confronted with outbreaks and have to organise emergency immunisation campaigns, which represent a complex logistical challenge.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), out of the 30 million children affected by measles every year, about half a million die. Most of those deaths occur in Africa and Asia. This contrasts sharply with the Western world where measles cases have become extremely rare thanks to universal routine immunisation. This leads many people to forget that measles is a major killer.

Measles is highly contagious. Symptoms like runny nose, cough, eye infection, and rash appear about 10 to 14 days after exposure to the virus. There are different levels of severity, and deaths following measles infection are usually due to measles-related complications like diarrhoea, dehydration, and respiratory infections (pneumonia, croup). Those deaths can occur weeks after the acute disease and are not always attributed to measles. Mortality can reach 5 percent to 20 percent of measles cases. Initial health condition, access to health care, and proper treatment provision are factors influencing mortality.

2011 International Symposium on Reducing Child Mortality: Thinking outside the hospital for effective medical care

15/07/2011

In the lead-up to the 7th World Congress of the World Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases held in Melbourne, Australia, Médecins Sans Frontières and Epicentre are hosting a one-day satellite symposium to re-think...

Category: Upcoming Events (Events), Lectures & Seminars

Médecins Sans Frontières welcomes initiative by UNICEF to make vaccine prices public

31/05/2011

Geneva, 27 May 2011— In a bid to increase transparency and stimulate competition to bring down the prices of vaccines needed in the developing world, UNICEF has decided to publish the prices it pays to vaccine manufacturers.

Category: Press releases

Zambia: Measles vaccination campaign underway to immunise 600,000 children

24/05/2011

Mansa, Zambia – Médecins Sans Frontières teams are currently working alongside the Zambian health authorities to carry out a measles vaccination campaign with a target of almost 600,000 children. Médecins Sans Frontières launched...

Category: Field news

Treating measles in a remote province of the Democratic Republic of Congo

17/05/2011

In March, the measles epidemic that has raged in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for more than six months reached the remote province of Maniema. Despite the logistical challenges, Médecins Sans Frontières teams are...

Category: Field news

Medical and humanitarian emergency continues as violence persists in Ivory Coast

27/04/2011

21 April 2011: The medical and humanitarian emergency in Ivory Coast persists as violence rages in several neighbourhoods in Abidjan, and security in the west of the country remains critically unstable, with populations hiding in...

Category: Field news

DR Congo: “Measles epidemic spiralling out of control” according to Médecins Sans Frontières

28/03/2011

Over the past six months a measles epidemic has been sweeping through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Médecins Sans Frontières is raising the alarm and calling for concerted action to halt the spread of the disease.

Category: Press releases

Visit Doctors Without Borders and fight Malaria - 

http://www.msf.org.au/rciyw/

Source: www.msf.org.au

Roll Back Malaria Progress & Impact Series:
Focus on Zambia

Photo: David Lwenje, Zambia National Malaria Control Centre

Source: http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/ProgressImpactSeries/report7.html

Through the National Malaria Control Centre (NMCC), Zambia has built up a strong disease-control programme, with well-defined goals and organizational plans.

Sound policies and good planning have attracted both partners and growing resources. Between 2003 and 2010, nearly US$ 200 million in external funding was allocated to scale up the malaria control programme.

These funds, as well as a growing contribution from the Government of Zambia, were used to roll out appropriate preventive and curative services:

• Over six million insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) were distributed between 2007 and 2010.
• Over one million households have received indoor residual spraying (IRS) annually between 2008 and 2010, protecting at least five million people per year.
• Health personnel have been trained in proper diagnosis and treatment of malaria, using Rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) and Artemisininbased combination therapies (ACT), in all nine provinces—including an expanding number of community health workers.

Careful roll-out of interventions was quickly followed by good coverage results:

• 73% of households had either one or more ITNs or received IRS in 2010— a 41% increase in household availability of malaria prevention nationally between 2006 and 2010 and a fivefold increase between 2001/20021 and 2008.
• 52% of children under five in rural areas and 46% of pregnant women nationwide (regardless of mosquito-net ownership) used an ITN the night before the survey—a more than twofold increase in the same 2006 to 2010 period.
• Among children with fever in the two weeks preceding the survey, 26% received an ACT in 2010 compared with 13% in 2008—a twofold increase in two years.

These coverage results, in turn, allowed health staff to achieve impact, reduce disease burden and save lives:

• The prevalence of parasitaemia in children under five was reduced from 22% in 2006 to 16% in 2010.
• All-cause child mortality decreased by 29% between 2001/2002 and 2007.
• According to the Lives Saved Tool (LiST a model used to estimate impact based on rates of coverage of the various interventions), the lives of 33 000 children under five have been saved by malaria control interventions since 2001.

These data show that malaria control is working and can generate major health gains. However, reductions in funding from 2008 to 2010 have been associated with decreases in intervention coverage in three provinces. This rapidly led to rebounds in parasitaemia and severe anaemia, highlighting the necessity of maintaining human and financial resources to sustain the gains.

Zambia is now aiming at achieving and sustaining high national coverage rates for malaria control interventions. By anticipating the next steps in sustained control and maintaining a focused and organized approach, accompanied by adequate human and financial resources, final malaria control success could be within reach.

BOX 1: The extent of malaria in Zambia

Malaria in Zambia at a glance

• There are 13 million inhabitants in Zambia.
• Malaria is endemic and transmission is stable with a seasonal peak from November to April.
• There are regional epidemiological variations with a decreasing gradient in malaria transmission intensity from the north-east to the south-west.
• In 2007, there were about 4 million suspected cases and 6000 deaths attributable to malaria.
• Malaria is responsible for about 20% of deaths among children under five.

Zambia has a population of approximately 13 million people (Census Statistics Office, 2010). It is administratively divided into 9 provinces and 73 districts.

The entire country is endemic for malaria with moderate-to-high transmission in all districts. A seasonal pattern of higher transmission is associated with the rains between November and April.

Northern, Luapula and Eastern provinces have the highest annual incidence of malaria, while the lowest is found in Lusaka Province, specifically around the capital city.

The predominant malaria parasite species is Plasmodium falciparum. Plasmodium malariae and ovale account for less than 5% of recorded parasitaemia. Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funestis are the main vectors.

Measuring malaria's contribution to death and disease is challenging. Without proper parasitological confirmation, the diagnosis of malaria relies on non-specific clinical symptoms, mainly fever. Since 2007, RDTs have been made available widely to assist with parasitological confirmation, although the national healthreporting system did not begin to report confirmed cases until 2009.

Regardless, malaria has always placed an overwhelming burden on the Zambian population:

• The annual reported malaria incidence—including confirmed and unconfirmed cases— was estimated at 358 cases per 1000 population in 2007, a decrease from 412 cases per 1000 population in 2006 (MOH, 2008).
• In 2007, 4.3 million cases of malaria (confirmed and unconfirmed) were reported countrywide, with over 6000 deaths attributable to the disease (MOH, 2008).
• Malaria accounts for 40% of all outpatient attendance, for up to 40% of all infant mortality and for 15–20% of deaths in children under five years of age.

The human and economic impact of the disease is a serious curb to economic development, either directly—through the costs of health care and hospitalization—or indirectly, through work-days lost to personal illness or to caring for a sick child. Malaria accounts for 6.8 million disability-adjusted life years lost in Zambia—more than respiratory infections (5.4 million) or HIV/AIDS (3.2 million)

Zambian Malaria Success!

A Malaria Success Story: Zambia

Source: news.againstmalaria.com

Thursday, 9 December 2010 16:00 by AndrewGarner



Zambia is a landlocked country in southern Africa. Malaria has staggered the nation for decades - as recently as 2006, malaria was its number one killer, accounting for half of all deaths in Zambia. But in spite of this seemingly insurmountable malaria burden, Zambia has achieved unprecedented progress. Since 2000, malaria infection rates in Zambia have dropped 66%. So how does such a remarkable reduction happen?

Between 2006 and 2008, 3.6 million nets reached Zambia's populace. And in this three year period alone, malaria deaths dropped by half.

These nets were not provided by the Zambian government, which couldn't afford the nets by itself. They weren't bought by Zambian families, 73% of whom live below the poverty line. Instead, it was international donors who paved the way for Zambia's incredible change. In short - it was you.

Thanks to you, AMF partners have distributed 332,660 LLINs to Zambia. That's a full 25% of all the nets our partners have distributed in the world. Check out our distribution partner World Vision to see some pictures of completed distributions in the country. And remember: Zambia is only the beginning.