Malaria will kill more people in sub-Saharan Africa this year than Covid-19 because of lockdowns and a shift in funding that has disrupted efforts to tackle the mosquito-borne disease.
Young children will account for most of a top end estimate of 100,000 excess deaths from the preventable disease in 2020, according to the World Health Organisation. It warned of “considerable loss of life” due to stalled programmes.
The UN agency’s global malaria report projected that the 2020 target for reductions in cases will be missed by 37 per cent, while the the goal to cut deaths will fall short by 22 per cent. Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to fight Aids, Turberculosis and Malaria, said the WHO findings reflected how “transfixed”