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Malaria deaths 'higher than expected'

NHS Choices Behind the Headlines, 2012

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Many newspapers have covered research that found that malaria claimed 1.2 million lives worldwide in 2010.
The Guardian also reveals that the study “demolishes conventional thinking” that almost all malaria deaths are in babies and small children under the age of five.
Malaria is not generally present in the UK, but this preventable disease is commonly contracted by unprepared travellers visiting tropical and subtropical regions.
In recent years, newspapers have reported several cases of high-profile people who have caught malaria, including pop star Cheryl Cole and Premiership footballer, Didier Drogba.
The headlines are based on a disease-modelling study that examined a large database, alongside a systematic review of other studies, to identify deaths due to malaria across 105 countries over the past 30 years.
The research found that malaria in 2010 was the cause of death for 1.2 million individuals, including 714,000 deaths in children younger than five years and 524,000 in individuals aged five years or older.
The results tend to show an increase in mortality from 1980 to peak levels in 2004, but since then a clear decline.
The researchers say that the recent decrease in malaria mortality in Africa in particular is due to an increase in measures to control the disease, which has been supported by international help.
However, the primary aim of this study was to predict trends over time in malaria mortality, not to try to find causes for malaria mortality or to examine the effectiveness of different solutions to the problem.
The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, and the University of Queensland in Australia, and was funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.