As one of the malaria control advocates who attended the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Malaria Forum in Seattle on October 17-19, I arrived not to the typical gray skies and rain of the American Pacific Northwest, but to sunshine—a possible symbol of the progress we’ve seen in the fight against malaria, despite stormy forecasts of budget cuts, resistance to anti-malarial drugs and other challenges.
Malaria kills almost 780,000 people per year, most of them children under the age of five in rural or impoverished regions of sub-Saharan Africa where clinics and commodities can be difficult to access. Mothers and fathers experience grief from the loss of young ones, while communities and nations face social and economic despair.
The parasite that causes malaria is transmitted through the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. Scientists describe the parasite as a moving target because it hides in the human liver, evading arrest by the white blood cells that normally chase infection. As the parasites multiply into the billions and erupt into the bloodstream, they bring sickness and death to their host at an astonishing speed.
Even so, rays of optimism in the global health community demonstrate that the story of malaria is not entirely grim. Hard-earned progress continues to save more than 485 children every day in Africa thanks to sustained funding and coordinated efforts from international donors, greater political will in endemic countries and scientific advances that make prevention tools more accessible. Malaria is preventable and treatable—and elimination is possible.
Good news abounds. At the 2011 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Malaria Forum, Bill Gates announced that malaria deaths are down 20 percent since 2000. More than a million lives have been saved in the past decade.
The Roll Back Malaria Partnership also shared good news. It released a new report that details elimination efforts worldwide, lending greater feasibility to the World Health Organization’s goal of eliminating malaria in at least eight new countries by the end of 2015. At the forum, WHO Director General, Dr. Margaret Chan, named Armenia as the latest country to be certified “malaria-free.” The shrinking malaria map is good news for the rest of the planet.
On the vaccine front, new results from a Phase III trial of the RTS,S malaria vaccine showed a 56 percent efficacy rate in children from seven African countries. Together with long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, rapid diagnostic tests and artemisinin-based combination therapies, this new vaccine can have an enormous impact on vulnerable populations.
And on the donor front, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and AIDS continues to mark progress, having helped save 830,000 lives since 2002 through an investment of more than $4.1 billion. Last week Sweden announced that it would increase its financial contribution, having previously withdrawn its support when the Global Fund discovered corruption among its recipients, who were subsequently punished. That decision will likely influence other donor countries to prioritize malaria control and ensure a continuous flow of resources to the frontlines.
In our own work in Africa, we too are seeing success. Our NetWorks project [1] in Senegal facilitated a universal coverage campaign that put millions of bednets into Senegalise homes this year. And our advocacy project, Voices for a Malaria-Free Future [1], significantly increased use of nets in places like Tanzania through public service announcements from our soccer-themed United Against Malaria campaign, which is now actively working to increase the private sector’s role in the fight against malaria. We are grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other donors for providing critical funding for these initiatives. We also recognize countless individuals in Africa, North America, Europe and elsewhere who continue to aid our efforts. It takes an incredible collective effort to affect change.
Fittingly, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation chose “optimism and urgency” as the theme for its malaria forum. We in the malaria community are equally optimistic, and we hear the clock ticking as we labor together to save lives.
Matt Lynch, PhD., is the malaria program director at the Center for Communication Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He is also the board vice-chair at Roll Back Malaria Partnership.
This editorial also appears on allAfrica.com [1].
