20100425
ANGOP

Luanda - The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s regional director for Africa, Luis Gomes Sambo Sunday here reiterated his call on the African governments to allocate adequate resources to the health sector, with a view to improving the interventions in the communities.

The appeal comes on a message released on the occasion of World Malaria Day, marked on April 25.

According to Gomes Sambo, the continuing efforts made by development partners is crucial to support national programmes to combat the disease.

He also assured that WHO will continue to provide guidance on appropriate policies and interventions for combat to malaria and will strengthen its technical support to the countries, in co-operation with the UN Secretary-General, the Roll Back Malaria partnership, the regional economic communities, the African Union and global initiatives for health.

The WHO regional director also acknowledges, on his message, that the burden of malaria is extremely heavy in the African region, accounting for 85 percent of cases and 90 percent of deaths from the disease worldwide.

He recalls that the victims of malaria are mainly children under the age of five and in his opinion, "this is unacceptable, since there are effective interventions that should be accessible to everyone, including people in most remote villages".

Luis Gomes Sambo stressed that over the years, African leaders have committed themselves to strengthening the prevention and monitoring interventions for the elimination of the disease, a commitment which has given some results.

For example, he said, in 2008, 31 percent of homes had insecticide-treated nets (ITN), compared to 17 percent from 2006, besides the fact that 24 percent of children aged under five used an INT.

The WHO official said that as a result of increased use of ITN, the home spraying, preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy, ten countries in the region (Botswana, Cape Verde, Eritrea, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia) managed to reduce the cases of malaria, at least, 50 percent between 2000 and 2008.

The message ended with the recommendation of collective and co-ordinated action of all the concerned parties to ensure the application of quality health interventions.