AFCON dedicated to fight against malaria

United Against Malaria (UAM) has once again joined forces with the Confederation of Africane Football (CAF) around its flagship football tournament, the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), to reach football fans with life-saving malaria prevention and treatment messages.

UAM, a campaign of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, and CAF are also teaming up with leading football players Gervinho (Cote d'Ivoire), Andre Ayew (Ghana), Seydou Keita (Mali), and Nicolas N'Koulou (Cameroon) to ensure fans pay attention to more than just the football net at this tournament, said a press release issued by the United Nations Information Centre Pretoria (UNIC) Friday, reports Xinhua.

"The partnership between UAM and CAF has demonstrated the powerful role football can play in reaching Africans with crucial health messages and helping prevent and treat disease effectively," said CAF President Issa Hayatou.

"We applaud these football players for their dedication to protect Africans from malaria, and as an organization committed to protecting the health of players and fans alike, we will continue to work together to combat this deadly disease."

Due to comprehensive malaria control efforts, tremendous progress has been made. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported a more than 50 percent malaria mortality rate drop in Africa over the past 10 years.

But progress is fragile, and malaria still threatens Africa's prosperity. Today, a child dies from the disease every minute, and the disease severely limits economic development, costing Africa an estimated minimum of 12 billion dollars in lost productivity every year.

"It's critical that we continue to work together to sustain progress in malaria control. By leveraging the largest platform in Africa, we can continue to make a difference," said David Kyne, campaign manager of UAM.

"The malaria community commends CAF for its unwavering commitment to important social causes, including malaria, to ensure that all children have a chance to achieve their dreams."

The 2015 AFCON will begin Jan 17 and will continue till Feb 8.

The tournament was initially scheduled to be hosted by Morocco, who previously hosted it in 1988, but Morocco refused to host the tournament at the scheduled dates because of the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa. The host country was later changed to Equatorial Guinea.