According to the World Malaria Report 2021, there were an estimated 241 million global malaria cases in 2020 in 85 malaria endemic countries, a significant increase from 227 million in 2019. African countries account for about 95% of this increase, with an estimated 228 million cases in 2020.
Over the past two decades, great progress has been made in the Malaria fight, saving more than 7 million lives and preventing over 1 billion malaria cases. However, current strategies for Malaria control in Africa focus on vector control and drug therapy that have not been sufficiently adequate to eliminate malaria on the continent. This situation is worsened by the spread of insecticide resistance Anopheles gambiae populations.
A landscape study conducted by the African Institute for Development Policy in March-May 2021 revealed various emerging technologies being developed and/or tested in different parts of the continent for Malaria control as follows:
The analysis found that malaria vaccines were under development and in the process of trials. While it was expected that it may take years before they can be fully recommended for wide application, malaria prevention saw a major breakthrough on 6 October 2021 when WHO announced the launch of the RTS,S, malaria vaccine.
RTS,S is the world’s first WHO-recommended malaria vaccine and acts in a different and synergistic way to other malaria prevention interventions. The RTS,S malaria vaccine be used for the prevention of malaria in children living in regions with moderate to high transmission.
There is notable ongoing research and prioritization of this technology in Africa for malaria control and elimination. Currently, there is ongoing preparatory work on gene drive mosquito research in Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali and Uganda led by the Target Malaria consortium.
The African Union in 2017 committed to invest in the development and regulation of the gene-drive technology. In 2018, the AU Development Agency (AUDA)-NEPAD released a report that recommended various actions to operationalize the AU recommendation.
Attractive-toxic sugar baits (ATSBs) are considered a new vector control that kill both female and male mosquitoes attracted to sugar feed on a sugary solution containing a mosquitocidal agentix. This tool is considered simple and affordable, and has been tested in Kenya and Mali.
For malaria control and elimination, drones are used for larval control. This is done by spraying over vast mosquito breeding sites like swamps. In July 2021, the president of the Republic of Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also the Chair of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), flagged off the use of drones in the larviciding of mosquito habitats.
Researchers at the Wits Research Institute for Malaria are working on sterile male mosquitoes technology as a new tool that has the potential to add value to existing tools for malaria control and elimination in Africa. However, the development of this technology has been stymied by the challenge of generating community trust.
Ivermectin drug is an anti-parasitic drug that acts by killing mosquitoes that are exposed to it while feeding on the blood of people (known as blood feeds) who have ingested the drug. This drug has been tested in Senegal, Liberia, Mali and Burkina Faso.
