ABSTRACT
In an era in which many developing countries are undergoing epidemiological risk transitions, malaria remains atop the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, claiming the lives of up to one million people each year. Despite intense efforts to curb the global burden of the disease, it is still one of the leading causes of mortality in low-income countries accounting for at least 5.2 per cent of the death toll (WHO 2011). And nowhere are these conditions more serious than in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where 90 per cent of the deaths occur alongside adverse health complications such as poor reproductive outcomes, cognitive and neurological impairments, and other developmental delays in young children (Guyatt and Snow 2001; Holding and Kitsao-Wekulo 2004; Samba 2004). The changing global climate, armed regional conflicts, the HIV/AIDs pandemic, and rising levels of poverty have all contributed to the persistence of this disease in the region (Minah and Margai 2008; Stratton et al. 2008).
