What do Quincy Jones, UN Ambassador Dr. Susan Rice, the Sultan of Sokoto, Nigeria, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, Rabbi David Saperstein, ExxonMobil, Tony Blair Faith Foundation, the First Ladies of Cape Verde and Mozambique, and 8-year old
They are all acting together in the fight against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
Friday, I attended the “One World Against Malaria Summit” and heard from each of these leaders who are acting together to end malaria deaths by 2015. Presented by the UN Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA), the event was the first of its kind, bringing together diverse actors from the worlds of faith, government, NGOs, the arts, and business. The event was led by UN Special Envoy Ray Chambers, and Ed Scott, Chairman of CIFA and one of the founders of DATA.
We can beat malaria. Bed nets to protect against malaria cost only $10 – and they provide “a night of sleeping in paradise,” as one attendee of the event described. Yet, it is estimated that 900,000 people around the world die each year from malaria – 85% of those are children under 5 in Africa. Yesterday’s event outlined the urgent, yet achievable goal of ending malaria deaths by 2015.
In a key-note address, Dr. Susan Rice, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, underscored the role of US leadership in ending malaria deaths, offering that it was in “American interests and American values.” She went on to highlighted President Barack Obama’s commitment to the fight through the President’s Malaria Initiative and its $1.2 billion dollar 5-year expansion.
Let’s get hypothetical. If you were to make a list of malaria’s greatest fears, what would you include?
Topping my list would be Rwanda, which in the last three years decreased the reported incidence of malaria by 60% — and there’s nothing hypothetical about that.
Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend the Global Health Council’s congressional briefing on Rwanda’s fight against malaria. Through an incredible integration of prevention, treatment, mosquito control, and health system strengthening, Rwanda decreased cases of malaria reported in public clinics from 1.7 million in 2005 to 700,000 in 2008! How did Rwanda do it?
To begin, Rwanda implemented the common system of community health workers in a unique and effective way. Instead of having the community health workers act as an extension of individual NGOs or other charitable organizations, they are an official piece of Rwanda’s health system. Rwanda’s community health workers are elected by their community, hired by the government, and are therefore accountable to both. They are the backbone of Rwanda’s progress in eradicating malaria, and the numbers back this up.
In 2005, only 1 in 10 high-risk households had a bed net. In 2008, after the distribution and usage follow-ups by the community health workers, this number rose to 6 in 10. In addition, 9 out of 10 fevers are treated within the first 24 hours and 9 out of 10 high-risk households are sprayed with pesticide. Both the treatment and spraying are done by the community health workers. Couple the work in the field with a government that is extremely results-oriented and tough on corruption, it is no surprise that Rwanda is winning the fight against this preventable disease.
Though there are definitely factors still to be confronted, the largest being tackling malaria not just in Rwanda but the region as a whole, the foundation is laid and the enthusiasm is there. In a region where it is easy to focus on the challenges, it is refreshing to hear a positive story.
The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative created a video that highlights the need to start preparing now for a malaria vaccine. African scientists share their thoughts on the science behind malaria vaccine development and the need to link research with policy to speed decisionmaking and ultimately, getting medicines to those in need.
Yesterday afternoon, I went to a congressional briefing describing new tools that can be used in the fight against malaria, co-sponsored by the Global Health Council, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, and the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics (FIND).
Every thirty seconds, a child dies from malaria. This leads to over one million deaths each year, including 700,000 children under five, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. While these statistics are heartbreaking, there have been significant improvements in the medicines that treat malaria. Even more encouraging, developments in science may lead to a vaccine that has the potential to prevent and ultimately eradicate the disease.
Antony Kalm, the Executive Vice-President of Corporate Development at Medicines for Malaria Venture described a partnership with Novartis to develop the first effective, affordable and child-friendly anti-malarial treatment called Coartem Dispersable.
Coartem Dispersable, which was launched in February this year, was created for children infected with malaria. Unlike other bitter-tasting malarial drugs, Coartem-D is sweet-tasting which greatly improves kids’ willingness to take the medicine. Just as important, it is cost-effective; the full treatment is just 37 cents for young children and 80 cents for older children. So far, the reaction to the medicine has been positive by children, parents and doctors alike.
Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) PATH is working to develop a malarial vaccine called RTS, S that children would take as a preventative measure. RTS, S is a developing vaccine that has the most progression yet. It will enter the third and final stage within a few months, and, if successful, could possibly be implemented by 2012. Hopefully on World Malaria Day in 2012, we will have a lot to celebrate.
-Julie Ramaccia, ONE’s Government Relations Intern
I just got off a conference call hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for bloggers interested in the fight against malaria. Specifically, the call focused on the Grand Challenges Explorations, a grant program that aims to foster innovation in global health research. The Foundation commits $100 million to “expand the pipeline of ideas to fight our greatest health challenges.”
As World Malaria Day fast approaches, this call focuses particularly on 3 grant recipients who have made some pretty great achievements in fighting malaria through innovation and hard work. Dr. Szabolcs Marka of Columbia University is an astrophysicist, which was fairly compelling to me as that’s not a field I would generally associate with fighting malaria. But his really innovative idea to use optical ways—essentially a flashlight– to disrupt mosquitoes’ sensory networks, thereby limiting their ability to locate human prey, made a lot of sense to me.
Brian Foy of Colorado State University is seeking to end malaria deaths through other ways by developing and strategically employing drugs that would be administered to humans and then kill mosquitoes upon contact with the blood. Pradipsinh Rathod of the University of Washington seeks to confront the problem of mutating strains of malaria by searching for small molecules that could inhibit some of these mutations and give traditional drugs a fighting chance to make an impact.
It was fantastic to hear about this great program and the excellent work being done all around the world to come up with innovative and creative ways to end malaria deaths. You can learn more about Grand Challenge Explorations here.
In its third annual report released today, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) announced that it has reached more than 32 million people with malaria prevention and treatment activities in Africa. This is an impressive achievement for an agency created just three years ago, and one that represents a significant scale-up from 6 million people reached in 2006 and 25 million people reached in 2007.
PMI is a $1.2 billion five-year initiative of the U.S. government to reduce the burden of malaria and help alleviate poverty on the African continent. Specifically, it is intended to cut malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 of the hardest hit counties. The initiative is led by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency originally tasked with malaria control in the U.S. over 60 years ago.
To achieve its mandate, PMI works to reduce malaria infections and deaths through proven and effective prevention and treatment programs. In 2008, PMI obtained more than 6.4 million long lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) for distribution, and 15.6 million artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) treatments. An estimated 6 million houses were covered by indoor residual spraying, providing protection from mosquito bites for nearly 25 million people.
With support from PMI, countries like Rwanda, Zambia, Zanzibar, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda have all reported declines in the number of people infected with malaria. In Zambia, between 2006 and 2008, malaria prevalence fell by 53 percent and severe anemia cases in children under 5, which is closely linked with malaria, dropped by 68 percent. PMI credits country governments, the Global Fund, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners for the malaria control successes being seen.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
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