Parents and communities' assets to control under-five child malaria in rural Benin, West Africa

Abstract

Malaria continues to be the principal cause of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. Each year, 350-500 million people suffer from it in the world, generally in its severe form. Nearly 3 million children and adults continue to die of this disease in the world each year in spite of the existence of effective preventive and curative measure. Approximately 94% of these deaths due to malaria in the world occur in SSA. The victims are mainly children under 5 years, of which at least one dies every 30 s (WHO 2003a). This large prevalence of malaria translates to a situation of poverty and inadequacy of the health services. Furthermore, malaria in itself, from its consequences, contributes to maintain the populations in a state of poverty, because it generates for the whole SSA countries a lose more than 12 billion dollars US each year through the losses incomes, foreign investments and resources related to tourism. This chapter reviews the issues around the burden of malaria in SSA, and outlines a community-led, assets based, anti-malarial project in rural Benin. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.