By SOLA OGUNDIPE
EVEN though it is already established as one of the world’s leading killer disorders, the global death toll from malaria is much higher than envisaged, new data has revealed. A  study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation found that in 2010, malaria grossed a total of 1.2 million deaths worldwide, almost twice  other estimates.

But what is significant in the new revelation is that  although most malaria deaths occur in very young children, 42 percent of deaths occurred in children over age 5 and adults, according to a publication in The Lancet.

Analysis of data collected from 1980 to 2010, global malaria deaths rose from one million in 1980 to a peak of 1.8 million in 2004. The 1.2 million malaria deaths in 2010 was a 32 percent decrease from the number of malaria deaths in 2004.

In 2010, there were about 700,000 malaria deaths among African children under age 5, or about 56 percent of all global malaria deaths.

Nigeria alone contributed more than 300, 000 deaths affecting children.

Number of malaria deaths in adults is also substantial, as persons aged 15 to 49, 50 to 69, and 70 and older accounted for 20 percent, 9 percent and 6 percent of worldwide malaria deaths in 2010, respectively. This means that more than one-third of all malaria deaths occur in adults.

The risk of malaria death in 2010 was highest in western, eastern and especially central sub-Saharan Africa.

Since the global peak in 2004, there has been a substantial decrease in malaria deaths that is attributable to the rapid, although variable, scale-up of control activities in sub-Saharan Africa. This scale-up has been driven in part by an expansion in health aid targeted towards malaria.