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HONG KONG, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The world saw 247 million cases of malaria in 2006, causing nearly one million deaths. Around 90 percent of these were in Africa, most of them children. A child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. (For main story, click [ID:nSP503140])

Below are facts about malaria and its heavy toll on the poorest continent:

THE PARASITE

Most malaria infections in sub-Saharan Africa are caused by Plasmodium Falciparum, a parasite that causes the most severe and life-threatening form of the disease.

The region is also home to the anopheles mosquito, the most efficient, and therefore deadly, transmitter of the disease.

HOW BAD IS IT?

The first symptoms are fever, headache, chills and vomiting, usually appearing 10 to 15 days after a person is infected. If not treated promptly, malaria can cause severe illness, coma and death.

Malaria is Africa's main cause of death for children under 5 (20 percent) and constitutes 10 percent of the continent's overall disease burden.

PREVENTION

There is no vaccine. Common methods of prevention include prophylactic drugs, mosquito eradication and prevention of mosquito bites through insecticides and bed-nets.

Mass drug programmes, where antimalarials are given to entire populations, have been implemented sporadically in the last 70 years but have been criticised for potentially triggering drug resistance.

TREATMENT AND RESISTANCE

Treatment involves supportive measures and antimalarial drugs.

Resistance to chloroquine, the cheapest and most widely used drug, is common throughout Africa, particularly in southern and eastern parts of the continent.

Resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, often seen as the first and least expensive alternative, is also increasing.

As a result, many countries are changing treatment policies and using more expensive drugs, including combinations which should hopefully slow the development of resistance.

WHAT ARE ITS COSTS?

Malaria hits hardest among poor people who cannot afford treatment or have limited access to healthcare.

Not only does it lead to death and lost productivity due to illness, it also hampers children's schooling and can cause permanent brain damage.

In worst-hit countries, it consumes 40 percent of public health spending, 30-50 percent of in-patient hospital admissions and 60 percent of out-patient clinic visits.

In economic terms, it can lop 1.3 percent off gross domestic product growth rates and costs the continent more than $12 billion every year in lost output even though it could be controlled for a fraction of that sum. Source: World Health Organisation (Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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