Last Updated Wed, 09 Mar 2005 20:22:47 EST
CBC News
LONDON - At least half a billion cases of malaria occur each year, say scientists who warn the World Health Organization's estimates are off by nearly 50 per cent.
Figures compiled by a team of tropical medicine specialists add up to 515 million clinical attacks of the deadliest form of malaria worldwide.
Southeast Asia accounts for about 25 per cent of the total, according to the study in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
On the other hand, the UN agency estimated a global incidence of 273 million cases in 1998, 90 per cent of which were in Africa.
"These global estimates are up to 50 per cent higher than those reported by the World Health Organization and 200 per cent higher for areas outside Africa," the researchers wrote.
Lead author Prof. Bob Snow of the Kenyan Medical Research Institute in Nairobi and his colleagues used epidemiological data, studies and reports published in the medical literature, and population information.
The team also used satellite data to find where the disease is most prevalent.
The WHO bases its estimates on surveys by doctors and health workers in sub-Saharan Africa and the numbers reported by governments elsewhere in the world.
Both approaches fail to offer a true picture of the disease, which is important to be able to target drugs where they're needed most, Snow said.
The Nature study is important, agreed Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
"Many have believed that existing data grossly under-estimates malaria, morbidity and mortality in Africa and Asia," Feachem said in a release. "We now have confirmation of this."
CBC News
LONDON - At least half a billion cases of malaria occur each year, say scientists who warn the World Health Organization's estimates are off by nearly 50 per cent.
Figures compiled by a team of tropical medicine specialists add up to 515 million clinical attacks of the deadliest form of malaria worldwide.
Southeast Asia accounts for about 25 per cent of the total, according to the study in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
On the other hand, the UN agency estimated a global incidence of 273 million cases in 1998, 90 per cent of which were in Africa.
"These global estimates are up to 50 per cent higher than those reported by the World Health Organization and 200 per cent higher for areas outside Africa," the researchers wrote.
Lead author Prof. Bob Snow of the Kenyan Medical Research Institute in Nairobi and his colleagues used epidemiological data, studies and reports published in the medical literature, and population information.
The team also used satellite data to find where the disease is most prevalent.
The WHO bases its estimates on surveys by doctors and health workers in sub-Saharan Africa and the numbers reported by governments elsewhere in the world.
Both approaches fail to offer a true picture of the disease, which is important to be able to target drugs where they're needed most, Snow said.
The Nature study is important, agreed Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
"Many have believed that existing data grossly under-estimates malaria, morbidity and mortality in Africa and Asia," Feachem said in a release. "We now have confirmation of this."
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