Paris, London, 12 September 2011
– A new report released today by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM)
finds that the world has made remarkable gains against malaria in the past ten
years, increasing optimism that an end to the disease is in sight. According to
Roll Back Malaria
Partnership: A Decade of Partnership and Results, global malaria
deaths have dropped by an estimated 38%, with 43 countries (11 of them in
Africa) cutting malaria cases or deaths by 50% or more, reversing the trend of
the previous decade and saving over a million lives.
"Only rarely have we seen a public health initiative
provide so much return on investment. Thanks to the efforts of the Roll Back Malaria Partners over the past
decade, we have a foundation that allows affected countries and communities to
reach even greater results in the years to come", said the United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
With approximately US$ 5 billion mobilised over this period,
coverage has risen across all interventions to prevent and treat malaria,
particularly insecticide-treated nets. Enough nets have been distributed to
cover nearly 80% of the population at risk in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to Dr Robert Newman, Director of WHO's Global Malaria Programme, the report's
findings are cause for real optimism. "The results of the past decade
exceed what anyone could have predicted and prove that malaria control is
working. Many of these achievements have occurred in the last five years, which
tells us that we are becoming increasingly effective in our ability to tackle
this disease."
In the past decade, an additional three countries have
eliminated malaria and another 26 are in various stages of the elimination
process. It is expected that all of the countries in the World Health
Organization's (WHO) European Region will have eliminated malaria by 2015.
Roughly half of the world's population is at risk of malaria, a preventable and
treatable disease that killed almost 800,000 people in 2009, primarily young
children and pregnant women. Over 90% of malaria deaths occur in Africa, where the disease also costs the continent an
estimated US$ 12 billion annually in lost productivity.
UN SG Ban Ki-moon |
Progress fuelled by
groundbreaking changes in malaria control
The recent acceleration of the malaria response stems from
huge changes in the global malaria landscape over the past decade. A number of
new agencies and initiatives have been created that greatly contribute to the
fight against malaria, including the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the US President's
Malaria Initiative, the World Bank Malaria Booster Program, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
UNITAID,
the African Leaders
Malaria Alliance, the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Malaria,
various civil society organizations and others. The Roll Back Malaria
Partnership, founded in 1998 to coordinate global action against malaria, now
includes over 500 private and public sector partners.
International funding for malaria has seen a more than
15-fold increase since 2003, jumping from US$ 100 million to US$ 1.5 billion
annually in 2010. Existing donor countries, such as the United Kingdom, the USA
and France,
have also stepped up contributions.
"It is great news that 1.1 million children's lives
have been saved from this killer disease over the past decade but we know that
there is still much more to do. We must keep our foot on the pedal. Tackling
malaria is vital to reducing child deaths. Over the next decade we need to see
even stronger partnerships, cutting edge innovation and decisive leadership
which will help us achieve the global target of zero deaths due to malaria by
2015," said the UK's
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Development, Stephen O'Brien.
"We want to see the increased impact of new technology -
such as diagnostics kits, bednets and effective anti-malarial drugs - by making
sure they are available and used by those that need them most, when they need
them. The important work of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership will be vital to
achieving this."
"The powerful partnership committed to standing up to
malaria has dramatically increased access to relatively simple intervention and
treatment options, which is translating directly into lives saved," said
Ray Chambers, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Malaria. "By
confronting malaria all cause child mortality is also on the decline, and we
must finish the job and reach the Secretary-General's goal of ending malaria
deaths by 2015."
Malaria prevention and treatment has been transformed by the
development of new, more effective drugs, rapid diagnostic tests and
long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, all products that did not exist ten
years ago. Hundreds of new products are now in the research and development
pipeline, including a vaccine.
."We are light years away from where we were ten years
ago,." says Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the RBM
Partnership. "And we have reached this position not only because of new
tools, vastly improved policies, financing, and strategies but also because we
have found new ways of working together. A key factor in our success has been
effective partnership involving donor countries, the private sector, civil
society and UN organizations, with African countries taking a key leadership
role.."
Even greater
progress is possible, though risks and gaps remain
Despite these impressive gains, many people at risk of malaria still lack sufficient access to critical treatment and prevention options, such as insecticide treated nets, indoor spraying with insecticides, diagnostic testing, and effective antimalarial drugs, including drugs to treat and prevent malaria in pregnant women. There is more to be done to address these issues, but with appropriate commitments, the gains can accrue rapidly.
Despite these impressive gains, many people at risk of malaria still lack sufficient access to critical treatment and prevention options, such as insecticide treated nets, indoor spraying with insecticides, diagnostic testing, and effective antimalarial drugs, including drugs to treat and prevent malaria in pregnant women. There is more to be done to address these issues, but with appropriate commitments, the gains can accrue rapidly.
However, even those countries which have already
demonstrated remarkable success in controlling malaria continue to face
significant challenges today. The progress achieved to date through greatly
scaled-up prevention with insecticide treated nets and indoor residual spraying
is threatened by the emergence of mosquitoes resistant to current insecticides.
Gains are also threatened by the emergence of malaria parasites, identified in
the Mekong region in Asia, which are resistant
to artemisinin, the key component of the most effective drug combinations
currently available to treat malaria.
Perhaps the biggest risk to progress is the uncertainty of
funding. Sustained, even increased financing will be required to consolidate
the gains made and continue to move forward. Unless malaria remains high on the
global health agenda, the progress achieved can quickly backslide. ."This
report shows that leadership, partnership and funding for malaria control can
save many, many children's lives,." said Anthony Lake,
UNICEF Executive Director, ."but to sustain these gains, we must do more
to protect, diagnose and treat those mothers and children who are the most
vulnerable and most in need.."
As significant gains have been achieved – and lives are
being saved – the goals of the global malaria community have become
increasingly ambitious: the Global Malaria Action Plan's new targets now call
for achieving near-zero deaths by 2015 by accelerating access to diagnostics
and treatment (in addition to ensuring continued high coverage with prevention)
and are targeting the elimination of the disease in a further 8-10 countries.
The Roll Back
Malaria Partnership (RBM) is the global framework for coordinated
action against malaria. Founded in 1998 by UNICEF, WHO, UNDP and the World Bank
and strengthened by the expertise, resources and commitment of more than 500
partner organizations, RBM is a public-private partnership that facilitates the
incubation of new ideas, lends support to innovative approaches, promotes
high-level political commitment and keeps malaria high on the global agenda by
enabling, harmonizing and amplifying partner-driven advocacy initiatives. RBM
secures policy guidance and financial and technical support for control efforts
in countries and monitors progress towards universal goals. The RBM Secretariat
is hosted at WHO in Geneva,
Switzerland.
The Report "Rolling Back
Malaria: A Decade of Partnership and Results" was presented
by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the
RBM Partnership at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, September 13th. Source: RBM
- Via Africa Press Organisation (APO)
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