Malarial risk for 125 million pregnancies
Also In The News
|
By Adam Leveridge
At an event in Stuttgart on Monday, Mercedes-Benz officially launched the liver |  |
Tuesday, 26, Jan 2010 01:29
A study has found malaria poses a severe risk to 125 million pregnancies around the world every year.
Researchers said the figure represents 60 per cent of all pregnancies globally and although the new report does not provide information on the actual number of women infected with malaria during pregnancy, it does make an "important contribution to the global level of knowledge on malaria in pregnancy and will go some way towards informing policy decisions".
Commenting Professor Feiko ter Kuile from the Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium said: "Until now, it was impossible to estimate the number of pregnancies at risk of malaria for endemic areas outside Africa."
The study estimated the sizes of populations at risk of malaria and used data from various sources to calculate the annual number of pregnancies in each country. Then the reseacrhers multiplied the number of pregnancies by the fraction of the population living within the 'spatial limits of malaria transmission' in that country.
It was calculated that in 2007, 125.2 million pregnancies occurred in areas with P.falciparum and/or P.vivax transmission.
"We now have a reliable estimate of the numbers at risk globally from malaria in pregnancy, which on its own is an important spur to further investment to tackle this problem. More significantly, the study is an important first step towards a spatial map of the burden of malaria in pregnancy and should help policy makers allocate resources for research and control of this important public health problem," prof ter Kuile added.