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EPIDEMIOLOGY & BURDEN
Malaria is endemic to over 100 nations and territories in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the South Pacific. It is an internationally devastating disease, producing nearly 300-500 million new infections and one to three million deaths each year.1 |
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Regions Most Affected by Malaria |
*Graphic From the WHO Global Atlas of Infectious Disease
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Malaria is a disease that overwhelmingly affects areas of poverty. The area most critically affected is sub-Saharan Africa, where almost 90 percent of total deaths due to malaria occur.2 It is important to note that the burden of this disease falls heaviest among children below the age of five, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
Malaria severity in sub-Saharan Africa is due to a combination of factors:
- A widespread mosquito vector assures high transmission rates
- Local weather conditions favorable to the mosquito life cycle allow transmission to occur year-round in many areas
- Parasite species are increasingly becoming resistant to available therapies
- Scarce resources and socio-economic instability hinder malaria control activity
- Poverty precludes access to new, more effective antimalarials
In other areas of the world, malaria is a less prominent cause of death, but can cause substantial disease and incapacitation, especially in rural areas of some countries in South America and Southeast Asia. |
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Malaria infection during pregnancy results in several adverse events for the mother, developing fetus, and newborn baby. Approximately 30 million African women become pregnant in malaria-endemic areas each year, and are at increased risk of complications if they contract malaria.3
Pregnant women in malaria-endemic regions often do not receive the proper care they need to protect their unborn children. This contributes to the high rates of maternal and infant deaths caused by the disease. Malaria infection in pregnant women is often asymptomatic in the areas of greatest transmission rates 4 and requires a preventive approach.
To treat or prevent malarial infection in pregnant women, intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is recommended.5 The medicine is given intermittently during pregnancy.
Consequences of malaria infection while pregnant include:
- Pregnant Women
Parasitemia, anemia, febrile illness, cerebral malaria, hypoglycemia, puerperal sepsis, hemorrhage, and death
- Fetus
Spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, congenital infection, intrauterine growth retardation
- Newborn
Low birth weight, premature birth, malaria illness, death
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