Rwanda to host global summit on malaria and neglected tropical diseases

Rwanda is set to host the first-ever global summit on malaria and neglected tropical diseases on 25^th June 2020. The summit will call on world leaders to meet the CHOGM 2018 pledge to halve malaria by 2023 as well as deliver the political and financial commitments of 1.5 billion dollars to end the scourge of neglected tropical diseases.

Each year, more than 200 million people get sick and over 400,000 die from malaria, most of them young children in sub Saharan Africa.

Neglected Tropical diseases such as elephantiasis, sleeping sickness, leprosy, blinding trachoma, and intestinal worms are some of the diseases that debilitate, disfigure, disable and can even kill. Nearly 40% of people in Rwanda are affected by these diseases.

The summit will be hosted by the Government of Rwanda and co-hosted by two global partnerships tackling the diseases. The minister of health Dr. Diane Gashumba says that it’s is unacceptable that billions of people around the world continue to suffer from malaria and the neglected tropical diseases yet they are preventable, treatable and curable.

In 2018, there were 228 million cases of malaria globally and 405,000 people died, more than 90% of the world’s malaria burden is in Africa. Currently, more than 1.5 billion people across 149 countries are at risk of neglected tropical diseases. The summit will capitalize on the presence o heads of state of countries that represent almost two-thirds of the malaria and neglected tropical disease burden as well as major donors to end these diseases.