One of the foremost health challenges today is the lack of a cure for malaria, a disease spread by mosquitoes, particularly Anopheles spp., caused by Plasmodium parasites. Despite significant progress in malaria control over recent decades, the parasite and disease continue to threaten millions, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. With many still contracting the disease and no cure in sight, some may view the goal of eradicating malaria as unrealistic, given the numerous obstacles to overcome as we approach Malaria Awareness Month. Many countries, particularly those in South Asia, are now moving towards malaria elimination.
Understanding Malaria’s Global Impact
Malaria’s impact on health and development is profound:
- Health Burden: Malaria encompasses more than 200 million clinical cases each year, responsible for half a million deaths annually, among which young children under five and pregnant women are disproportionately represented.
- The Economic Consequences: By crippling economic development, countries with chronic malaria suffer from heavy strains on healthcare systems, weakened workforces, and missed educational opportunities for impacted communities.
- Social Impact: Malaria hits the poorest hardest and, due to the way transmission proceeds, causes further inequality and hamstrings social development.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Brokered in 2015, the SDGs are a global pledge to end poverty, protect the planet, and provide prosperity for all by the year 2030. The 17 goals tackle just about every facet of human life: health, education, jobs, justice, peace, water, food, energy, and more. Beating malaria touches several of the goals:
- Goal 1: No Poverty. Malaria contributes to poverty by raising healthcare expenses and lowering productivity. Through effective malaria control and eradication, health outcomes can improve, and poverty can be more easily alleviated by improving economic stability.
- Target 3: Good Health and Well-Being: By directly reducing the prevalence of communicable diseases such as malaria, achieving effective malaria eradication contributes to a reduction in infant and maternal mortality, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
- Quality Education (Goal 4): Malaria leads to missed school days and harms children’s cognitive development.
- Goal 5: Gender Equality: Malaria burdens women more than men and commonly falls to women as primary caregivers.
- Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation: A vital part of vector-control programs is managing water sources to avoid mosquito breeding.
- Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth: Malaria decreases economic productivity through lost days of work and related healthcare expenses.
- Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities: Malaria tends to afflict the poor. Targeting malaria eradication will alleviate health inequities and foster healthy development for all.
- Goal 13: Climate Action: Malaria transmission is sensitive to climate conditions. Taking action on malaria in the context of climate change can help reduce its impacts and support action on achieving environmental sustainability.
- Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals The final goal of malaria eradication highlights the global partnerships that are essential. In this goal, the appropriate uses of technology and its importance in sharing information and resources have been praised.
Interconnected Objectives: How Malaria Eradication Supports SDGs
Pursuing malaria eradication is therefore not just about health outcomes, but about furthering goals for sustainable development. Here is how the fight against malaria helps advance the SDGs.
- Improving Health Systems (Goal 3): Malaria control efforts strengthen health systems by improving disease surveillance, treatment, and prevention – all of which can contribute to more effective healthcare delivery and to achieving improved health in general.
- Promoting Economic Development (Goals 1 and 8) Reduction in malaria incidence denotes far fewer interruptions in the daily activities of families and workplaces. This in turn contributes to community economic stability and growth, new employment opportunities, and significant savings for families and healthcare systems.
- Increase Educational Outcomes (Goal 4): Children in good health are more likely to make regular school attendance and have higher achievement because fewer will miss time for malaria and will be healthier. Thus educational attainment increases.
- Promoting Gender Equality (Goal 5): In part because of their role in caring for others, women tend to suffer disproportionately from the effects of malaria.
- Goal 6: Ensuring Access to Water and Sanitation Preventing mosquito breeding with proper water resource management directly prevents malaria.
- Reduce Inequalities (Goal 10): malaria eradication contributes directly toward narrowing health gaps by bringing valuable resources to those who are most affected and most disadvantaged, and therefore toward reducing health inequalities and universally inclusive development.
- Climate Change (Goal 13): Transmission of the malaria parasite is susceptible to climate change. By studying the potential impact of these changes, we can adapt existing control strategies, better manage resources, and target interventions to protect the most vulnerable communities from climate-related disease.
- Promote Global Partnerships (Goal 17): an effective anti-malaria program requires cooperation between countries and investment of resources.
Success Stories and Progress
Meanwhile, certain countries have made remarkably fast progress in malaria control, indicating that key initiatives can drive progress on the SDGs.
- Elimination in some places: countries such as Sri Lanka and Morocco have achieved elimination through sustained control efforts and strong health systems, proving that putting existing tools to use to eradicate malaria is an achievable goal.
- Innovation: Promising innovations in the form of malaria vaccines and vaccines that provide better-targeted diagnoses, for example, have led to declines in malaria incidence. Innovations help countries to achieve health goals and promote the advancement of technology (SDG 9).
- Community engagement: ‘Community-based’ approaches to malaria control can be very effective; supporting community engagement helps to empower local populations to play a greater role in prevention and treatment, contributing towards SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) and building community resilience and governance.
Challenges and Future Directions
Despite progress, challenges remain in the fight against malaria:
- Resistance: resistance to antimalarial drugs and insecticides is always a threat to control. Investment in new research and adaptive strategies will be required to keep interventions effective.
- Funding Gaps: Without sufficient funding, key interventions will not continue. Supporting malaria control programs needs to be maintained to keep up the momentum to achieve malaria SDGs.
- The need for a more environmentally sustainable production of energy.Jobs improvement and development of employment opportunities. Research and adaption to the consequences of Climate change maintaining political commitment malaria Transmission of malaria, for example, is increasingly impacted by climate change, and we need more research and adaption to deal with it. Integration of malaria control and climate action can be the answer
- Equitable (and effective) access: Without ensuring that malaria interventions reach those most needy, it will be harder to diminish health disparities and further the SDGs on inequality.
The vision of malaria eradication links together the global goals of Sustainable Development. By eradicating malaria, we make progress on the other important SDG aims that pertain to health, education, economic growth, and social equity. A coherent view of development sees progressive changes in these areas reinforcing each other.
The challenge to end malaria and move towards a more sustainable and equitable world requires continued cooperation, innovation, and resolve. By bringing malaria control activities in line with the SDGs, we can realize considerable gains for global health and sustainable development.
