Beating back malaria. dignitaries, heads of state and celebrities, including U2 frontman Bono, meeting at the UN to approve the new global plan of action against malaria.
Kathy Willens / AP Photos
an international partnership today unveiled an ambitious long-term plan to quickly reduce deaths from malaria and perhaps eventually eradicate the disease, which kills about 1 million people a year, mostly children in Africa. The Roll Back Malaria (RBM), which brings together governments, NGOs, international agencies and private groups, says its new plan of action against malaria (Global GMAP) could save 4.2 million lives of '2015. But it will take massive increases in funding from donor agencies, countries and the private and nonprofit sectors -. some $ 6.2 billion by 2010, and that's just for starters
when high power deployment at United Nations Headquarters in New York, featuring U2 rocker Bono and attended by leaders UN and several heads of state, a number of donors have pledged more than $ 3 billion. The Global Fund fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, for example, has announced it will provide $ 1.62 billion in new funding over the next two years to help poor countries fight against malaria. The World Bank has committed $ 1.1 billion to expand its Malaria Booster program. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation added $ 168 million in the pot, with which the vaccine against Malaria Initiative in Seattle, Washington, will aim to develop a new generation of malaria vaccines. The remaining money will come from other sources, according to the plan.
As a short-term target, GMAP wants to ensure 8-year plan to halve malaria deaths from 00 levels by 2010, which has made little progress so far , reached its goal. Then it seeks to reduce malaria deaths to near zero by 2015 by providing universal access to prevention and treatment. All this would be done by massively scaling proven interventions such as insecticide-treated bed long-lasting insecticide, a generation of drugs called combination therapies based on artemisinin, and indoor residual spraying of insecticides. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the RBM Partnership, said recent successes in countries such as Ethiopia show such gains are possible, but they will be much more difficult to remove in countries where the burden of malaria, such as discouraging high the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria. Regina Rabinovich, head of infectious diseases at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, calls these goals "ambitious but achievable."
The existing tools are not enough to stop the transmission of malaria in severely affected geographical areas, much less eradicate the disease, experts admit. To develop radical new vaccines, drugs and insecticides needed to achieve these long-term goals, GMAP urges the international community to come up with $ 750 million to $ 00 million per year for research. The contribution of Gates is the first installment.
Coll-Seck said GMAP reflect the contributions of over 250 people from 60 institutions over the past year. "The plan provides a strong sense of where the community wants to go," agrees Carlos "Kent" Campbell of the nonprofit PATH health based in Seattle.
Campbell said the new plan would have a "huge impact" in the fight against malaria, but warns that GMAP is currently "not a detailed work plan in every sense." blow it wide plan will actually achieve its objectives depends on how it has expanded over the next years-- and if donors and countries affected by malaria follow their words with actions.
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