Fewer pregnant women globally are at risk from malaria, except in sub-Saharan Africa

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-11-10 06:00

Australia; International; WA

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The amount of pregnant women living in areas where they face the risk of pregnancy complications from malaria infection has decreased over the past 20 years according to Australian and international experts, but sub-Saharan Africa is not seeing the same decrease. The researchers used global population data and malaria data to estimate how many women require intervention to reduce the risk of malaria while pregnant, which can result in severe complications including miscarriages and stillbirths. The researchers say while the amount of pregnant women facing these risks has decreased globally from 2000 to 2020, the growth in population in sub-Saharan Africa has outpaced efforts to reduce malaria transmission.

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Journal/
conference: PLOS Global Public Health

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Telethon Kids Institute, Curtin University, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK

Funder: WorldPop work was funded in part by the Wellcome Trust (grant number: 204613/Z/16/Z), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (grant number INV-007594). Matt Cairns: Matthew E Cairns is supported by a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship jointly funded by the 15 Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (Grant Number 220658/Z/20/Z). Georgia R Gore-Langton is supported by an MRC PhD studentship (MR/ N013638/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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