By-Liner
Together We Can Defeat Malaria
April 25, 2008
By: Mark Green
In 2005, President Bush announced that the United States would work to save lives through a major Malaria Initiative. Under this five-year, $1.2 billion program we are working with 15 African countries to cut malaria-related deaths by half. Tanzania was one of the first three countries benefiting from the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).
PMI is working with Tanzania to lift the intolerable malaria burden. Through relationships with the Ministries of Health and Social Welfare, NGOs, faith-based organizations, civil society, and the private sector, we are leveraging support and partnerships at multiple levels to improve people’s lives.
These efforts are helping to change attitudes toward malaria control. Gone are the days when malaria was viewed as “a fact of life” or “an intractable problem” in sub-Saharan Africa--malaria can be beaten back with a concerted effort from all partners.
Over the past two years, PMI has forged broad partnerships in Tanzania including community and faith-based groups who are well placed to deliver services to people in remote areas where the formal health system is weak. PMI has supported more than 15 nonprofit organizations, ten of which are faith-based, and is also leveraging private sector support. More than two million long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) manufactured and purchased in Tanzania have been distributed through PMI public-private partnerships to date.
In the first year, PMI reached over a million people in Zanzibar with malaria prevention and treatment activities. In just its second year of operation, more than eight million Tanzanians have directly benefited from PMI.
PMI’s strategy is straightforward. First, the initiative supports the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets. This is one of the simplest technologies imaginable, but it's also one of the most effective. In Tanzania, we have procured and distributed more than 130,000 long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets. In addition, PMI has supported the National Malaria Control Program’s Hati Pungizo program which has subsidized the sale of over four million insecticide treated nets.
Second, the initiative supports indoor residual spraying to keep deadly mosquitoes at bay. Spraying campaigns have protected more than 1.25 million people in Zanzibar, Muleba and Karagwe.
Third, the initiative provides life-saving drugs. The program has procured more than 1 million treatments of Artemether and Lumefantrine in Tanzania, highly effective medicines known as Alu. PMI has trained more than 5000 health workers in Tanzania to use Alu.
Fourth, the initiative has supported preventive treatment for pregnant women, who, along with the unborn baby, are especially vulnerable to malaria, and over 2,000 health workers have been trained to provide these treatments correctly. PMI also supports training of health workers in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of malaria, promotion of healthy behaviors, and the provision of insecticide-treated nets. To improve diagnosis of malaria, PMI has procured more than 1.5 million rapid diagnostic tests.
We are already beginning to see signs that the malaria burden is lifting. There is now evidence that the percentage of children in Zanzibar who tested positive for malaria dropped from 22 percent in 2005 to less than 1 percent after the introduction of Alu, distribution of long-lasting ITNs and implementation of indoor residual spraying.
The ultimate success of our efforts will be judged by the effectiveness of the partnerships we build. There is now growing optimism that malaria in sub-Saharan Africa can be controlled. The greatest tragedy is that death from malaria is largely preventable through effective prevention and control measures. Working together, we can defeat this killer.
Mark Green is the U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania