THE ROLE OF WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO) IN COMBATING MALARIA IN AFRICA: ITS IMPACT AND PROSPECTS
THE ROLE OF WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO) IN COMBATING MALARIA IN AFRICA: ITS IMPACT AND PROSPECTS
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Date
2000-07
Authors
MUHAMMAD, BELLO TUKUR
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
This study has revealed the grim irony that dazzling advances in
biomedical science are scarcely felt in areas where need is greatest.
Large numbers of people are dying of malaria, a preventable and
curable disease, for lack of even the simplest measures of modern
medicine. While gains in biomedical technology are important, so are
developments in the methodology for analyzing complex problems,
planning optimum use of resources and managing programmes.
The study has drawn the distinguishing line between the problems of
providing health care, when there is a reasonable balance between
numbers of people and resources available and the problems of
reaching all the people of the entire world, a region, a nation or even
a community. The decision to serve an entire population profoundly
influences every step of planning and resource allocation. For health
services to be effective it must reach across the land into
communities and homes and include those who do not seek health
care (but may desperately need it) as well as those who do. Every
apparent medical success must be measured against the needs of all.
Every effort, every cluster of resources must be divided by the
total number of people.
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Two major developments have brought us into confrontation with the
need to serve all the people. First is the rising sense of social
responsibility that each nation feels for the well being of its people.
Second is an increasing capability for dealing with the problems of
health care. Closely related to these trends is a sense of urgency
based on such factors as finding a solution to the problem of rapid
population growth and that the disadvantaged sectors of society can
react in ways that are often disruptive and may be exceedingly
dangerous.
The reality of the situation is that our increasing abilities to
quantify the needs of people and evaluate the uses of resources are
making it painfully clear that lives are lost and damaged in some
places while life-saving resources are wasted on trivia in others. In
individual nations, there is increasing impatience and even outrage
over the failure to reach the disadvantaged, but it remains to be
seen how soon these feelings will lead nations to share their
resources across international boundaries.
In considering how to reach all the people with health care, it must
be realized that although the medical answers to some diseases,
such as malaria, are well known (getting rid of mosquitoes), the cost
of providing these answers would consume all available health
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resources in many countries. This realization may have influenced
WHO'S decision to champion the launching of Roll Back Malaria
(RBM) in 1998 - a partnership working world-wide to halve the
burden of malaria by 2010.
As firmly established by this study, however, three years after its
inception the RBM programme have failed to make a statistically
significant impact particularly in Africa where malaria continues to
ravage the continent leaving behind in its trail scores of infant and
maternal deaths and retarded social and economic growth.
The solution recommended by this study Is simply a diligent
application, on a large scale, of a well organised and supported
malaria control programme based on the present day technologies,
which the study assert have newer really been applied and sustained
on a big enough scale to make much difference in malaria incidence,
morbidity and mortality.
In the end the study endorses the on going researches for new
malaria control technology, including malaria vaccine as a step in the
right direction but point to the fact that even in a most optimistic
scenario, such a product will not be available for widespread use
within the next five years.
Description
Submitted to Postgraduate School
Ahmadu Bello University Zaria
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Award of the Degree of
Master of International Affairs and Diplomacy
AHMADU
Keywords
ROLE, WORLD HEALTH, ORGANISATION, (WHO), COMBATING MALARIA, AFRICA:, IMPACT, PROSPECTS