Extreme weather events in Malawi and Pakistan have driven a"very sharp" rise in malaria infections and deaths.
Cases in Pakistan last year, after devastating floods left a third of the country under water, rose four-fold to 1.6 million, according to the World Health Organization . "So you have these extreme weather events, whether flooding in Pakistan, or the cyclone in Malawi, leaving lots of stagnant water around the place.
In both countries, pools of water left behind as waters receded created ideal breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes.Sands said there had been some progress made in the fight against malaria but stressed that a child still dies of the disease every minute. Another vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, developed by Britain's Oxford University, received clearance to be used in Ghana earlier this month -- the first time it has received regulatory clearance anywhere in the world.
"It's all about having services that can diagnose and provide treatment... that means you need community health workers in every village, who actually have the tools to test and to treat," he said.