Brussels, 25/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - Thanks to the efforts of the European Union and the international community, deaths from malaria have fallen by 25% since 2000, the European Commission pointed out on 25 April, which is celebrated by the United Nations as World Malaria Day. The EU, which is the largest provider of development aid in the world (€53 billion in 2011, according to initial OECD figures), gave in total more than €1 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Of these resources 29% are earmarked to fight malaria - one of the most deadly of the so-called diseases of poverty, which wreaks havoc, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Over the last 10 years, the EU has also invested nearly €200 million in malaria research. Since 2007, insecticide mosquito nets have been distributed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Niger as part of a partnership between the EU and UNICEF, partly financed by the European Development Fund (EDF).
In 2010, the number of people with malaria was estimated at 216 million (81% in Africa), leading to 655,000 deaths (91% of them in Africa). (AN/transl.fl)