On course to stamp out malaria
2003-09-10 09:56
Addis Ababa - Health professionals from 13 African countries gathered in Addis Ababa Tuesday for a three-month training programme organised by the World Health Organization (WHO) to try to reduce the incidence of malaria in the continent.
"The training is aimed minimising the death toll related to malaria in the continent," said Dr Maru Aregawi, a malaria expert with the WHO, quoted by the he ENA news agency.
ENA said a total of 32 health professionals were attending from Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Tanzania, Namibia, the Gambia, Liberia, Zambia and Nigeria.
The medics would acquire knowledge on the causes and means of preventing the disease as well as the features of drugs used to treat it.
Malaria, which kills an estimated one million people every year, is Africa's leading cause of death in under-five-year-olds and accounts for one-tenth of the overall disease burden across the continent, the WHO said in a report released in April.