Africa-Press – Rwanda. Prince Charles has reminded world leaders of the responsibility they have to come together to accelerate action and the scaling of solutions to end malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) for the present and future generations.
He made the address, on June 23, during the Summit on Malaria and NTDs which served as a landmark moment to renew commitments and call for more significant investments to end malaria and NTDs.
During the high-level summit, world leaders raised more than $1.9 billion for the newly launched Kigali Declaration.
The declaration is a high-level, political declaration that aims to mobilize political will to secure commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) target to end NTDs in 2030 and to deliver the targets set out in the World Health Organization’s roadmap on NTDs (2021-2030).
“As we emerge from the pandemic, 2022 must be a turning point. Post Covid-19, the world is paying greater attention to infectious diseases, and we must capitalize on this to provide proper support to prepare for and respond to infectious disease outbreaks,” said the Prince of Wales.
He noted that these efforts take bold ambition, concerted action on the ground with communities, and partnerships across borders as it is a battle that is fought in local communities and by citizens themselves.
“In this regard, we acknowledge and give particular thanks for the tireless efforts of community health and prevention workers who each make such an important difference.”
In 2020, despite Covid-19, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reported that 188 million mosquito nets were distributed –a 17 per cent increase compared to 2019.
However, Prince Charles noted that climate change is causing the length of the malaria transmission season to increase in many parts of the globe. “Human health, planetary health and economic health are fundamentally interconnected.”
“A recent study from the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine showed that if global mean temperatures continue to rise to 3.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, an additional 4.7 billion people could be living in areas at risk of malaria and dengue transmission.”
We now have more valuable assets at our disposal than ever before. For example, the first World Health Organization approved vaccine, new nets and modern communications tools to monitor our progress and fight against complacency, he said.
For that matter, he noted that the burden of neglected tropical diseases is also a hugely important issue as such diseases are endemic in 46 of the Commonwealth’s 54 countries, thereby representing two-thirds of the world’s burden.
Around the world, it is estimated that 1.7 billion people suffer from NTDs.
According to WHO’s World malaria report, there were an estimated 241 million malaria cases and 627,000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2020.
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