Malaria caused 1.2 million deaths in 2010

Malaria caused 1.2 million deaths in 2010, almost double what was contained in the final report of the World Health Organization (who), hindering the objective of eradicating evil in 2015, according to a study published today in the us.

The study, carried out by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University American Washington and widely used by the scientific journal The Lancet, provides figures that bend to the who on malaria for 2011 report and indicate one much larger number of deaths among adults, both in Africa and in the rest of the world.

According to who, in 2010 there were estimated 655,000 deaths disease transmitted by the bite of a mosquito, 91 per cent in Africa and 86 per cent in children under five.

Now, the IHME researchers claim that these figures have not taken into account many of 78,000 children aged between five and 14 years and 445,000 people of more than 15 u000ahave died for this cause years in 2010, mostly in Africa.

"For a long time everyone has assumed that malaria kills especially to children under age five", as a child exposed to the disease becomes immune and rarely succumb to this evil when he is an adult, he told Efe Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the IHME and lead study author.

The IHME experts collected information between 1980 and 2010 on malaria deaths in 105 countries where the disease is endemic, including records of hospitals, of certificates of death and above all verbal autopsy reports - not used in the report of the who - and came to the conclusion that "42% of deaths occurred among people older than five years".

Verbal autopsies consist of interviewing the families of the deceased to identify the cause of your death.

"We believe that these are more reliable estimates to date on" u000a"the trend of malaria globally", said Murray, who however admitted there is always a degree of uncertainty in countries where scarce health data.

Before these results are "unrealistic" attempts to eradicate cases of malaria by 2015, said Murray, who said that "it is possible" to reduce them "to very low levels", though this needs a "change of strategy" that takes more into account adults.

Study of the IHME coincides with the who that from a peak reached in 2004 there has been a drastic decline in deaths from malaria in the world.

This institution encrypts the decline by 32 per cent, compared to 19% of the who, and attributes it to the increasingly greater control measures, including mosquito nets treated with insecticides and medicines.

According to a spokesman for the University of Washington, William Heisel, this decline was very noticeable in Latin America, where of 2.697 deaths u000ain 1980 he moved to 316 in 2010.

"Mexico", which recorded 199 deaths in 1980, had only two in 2010 "And in Paraguay, El Salvador and Costa Rica there was no death that last year," he told Efe.

In Guatemala, in 1980 the probability of dying from Malaria was the highest in the region and threatened to nine of every 1,000 people, a risk equivalent to that existing in Botswana, but in 2010 that risk had been reduced to 0.33 for every 1,000 people, he added Heisel.

Risk in Bolivia was 3 per thousand in 1980 and 0.29 per thousand in 2010.

A Gregory Hartl, who spokesperson said today the overlap between both reports and explained the differences by "other method".

"Who ratified in its results", said Hartl EfE, at the time that stressed the need to "reinforce surveillance of malaria and records in endemic countries" have more reliable data.

According to Murray, the main cause of u000aconcern today is the decline in global health funding, and particularly of the Global Fund for the fight against AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, in view of the current economic crisis.

"If the Global Fund is weakened, the world could lose 40% of funds to combat malaria", warned.

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