Worldwide malaria deaths may be almost twice as high as previously estimated, a study reports.
The research, published in the British medical journal the Lancet, suggests 1.24 million people died from the mosquito-borne disease in 2010.
This compares to a World Health Organization (WHO) estimate for 2010 of 655,000 deaths.
But both the new study and the WHO indicate global death rates are now falling. The conclusion was that worldwide deaths had risen from 995,000 in 1980 to a peak of 1.82 million in 2004, before falling to 1.24 million in 2010.
"You learn in medical school that people exposed to malaria as children develop immunity and rarely die from malaria as adults," said Dr Christopher Murray of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study.
"What we have found in hospital records, death records, surveys and other sources shows that just is not the case."
The researchers also concluded malaria eradication was not a possibility in the short-term.
Source:
Malaria deaths hugely underestimated - Lancet study
The research, published in the British medical journal the Lancet, suggests 1.24 million people died from the mosquito-borne disease in 2010.
This compares to a World Health Organization (WHO) estimate for 2010 of 655,000 deaths.
But both the new study and the WHO indicate global death rates are now falling. The conclusion was that worldwide deaths had risen from 995,000 in 1980 to a peak of 1.82 million in 2004, before falling to 1.24 million in 2010.
"You learn in medical school that people exposed to malaria as children develop immunity and rarely die from malaria as adults," said Dr Christopher Murray of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study.
"What we have found in hospital records, death records, surveys and other sources shows that just is not the case."
The researchers also concluded malaria eradication was not a possibility in the short-term.
Source:
Malaria deaths hugely underestimated - Lancet study
