[Effects on Health] Asian Countries Pledge To Fight Malaria Resurgence

from All Headline News

Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent

Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) - Health officials from 11 south and southeast Asian countries on Monday pledged to fight the resurgence of malaria in the region as they wrapped up a two-day meeting in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka.

Health ministers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Maldives, North Korea, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand all vowed to speed up spending on the prevention of the disease.

They set a target of providing at least 80 percent of each nation's household access to pesticide-treated mosquito nets by 2010, it was reported.

Samlee Plianbangchang, regional director of the World Health Organization and convenor of the meeting said, "We've revised the plan to fight malaria as the incidence of the disease is around 100 million a year in the region."

He adds, "It's a big concern for us because the region is fast becoming an epicenter of drug-resistant malaria.

"Today insecticide-treated mosquito nets are used by 20 percent of people in the region. The plan is to raise the figure to 80 percent," he added.

Malaria is considered to be resurgent in all the countries represented at the meeting except the Maldives. The incidence of malaria in the region is second only to that in sub-Saharan Africa.