Malaria is a preventable and curable disease. Yet hundreds of millions of people suffer from it every year, resulting in nearly a million needless deaths around the world, mostly children. Despite these daunting numbers, the control and eventual eradication of malaria is possible with the backing of the international community and with your advocacy.
The disease
- Malaria is a disease of the blood carried from person to person by mosquitoes and is endemic in tropical areas.
- There are an estimated 250 to 600 million cases of malaria per year, including nearly 1 million deaths.
- 90% of malaria cases occur in Sub-Saharan Africa.
What are the problems?
Malaria exacerbates poverty
- Malaria has a huge impact on the economic development of countries where it occurs frequently because it impairs adults’ ability to work and children’s ability to go to school. It also limits tourism and investment in areas that have a high occurrence of infection.
- Overall, malaria accounts for an estimated $12 billion per year in direct losses and 1.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth per year for Africa.
- Malaria disproportionately affects the rural poor, who have a harder time affording and accessing preventative measures and medical treatment.
- Malaria is expensive for governments: it accounts for around 40% of public health spending in sub-Saharan Africa and 20-50% of inpatient admissions.
Women and children are the most vulnerable
- Children under the age of five and pregnant women are especially susceptible to contracting malaria.
- One in five of all childhood deaths in Africa are due to malaria and 80-90% of all malaria deaths are among children in Africa under the age of five.
- Malaria in early childhood, when not fatal, can cause permanent brain damage, affecting a child’s ability to learn and become a productive adult. This also contributes to the continuation of a cycle of poverty.
- Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to malaria because pregnancy reduces a woman’s immune system, making her more susceptible to malaria infection and increasing the risk of illness, severe anemia and death.
- Malaria infections among pregnant women result in the deaths of 10,000 pregnant women and up to 200,000 infants each year in Africa alone.
- For the unborn child, malaria in the pregnant mother increases the risk of spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, premature delivery and low birth weight – a leading cause of death for infants.
Some opportunities
Practicies:
- Insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITNs) that surround beds to prevent mosquito bites during the night they cost only a few dollars each and ff well kept, they last for 3-5 years.
- Indoor residual spraying (IRS) consists of spraying the interior walls of a home with insecticides that kill mosquitoes when they land on the walls. Homes need to be sprayed once or twice a year and this can cost as little as $1 per person protected.
- Intermittent preventative treatment for pregnant women (IPTp) consists of at least two doses of a specific anti-malarial medicine during the second and third trimesters and greatly reduces the chances of contracting malaria.
- Prompt and accurate use of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) for those diagnosed with malaria. This highly effective drug is the number one anti-malarial recommended by WHO for people diagnosed with malaria.
Legislation:
The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) was launched in 2005. It was originally a five-year program allocating a $1.2 billion expansion of US government resources to reduce the burden of malaria in Africa but has been extended and expanded by the Lantos-Hyde Act to continue beyond the original 2010 targets. Read more about the Presidents Malaria Initiative.
- The Lantos-Hyde US Global Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act was passed in 2008 as part of the Global Health Initiative (GHI), and expanded on PMI by aiming for larger goals and continuing programs with the same 15 target countries while also expanding to other endemic countries. Lantos-Hyde authorizes up to $5 billion in US government funding for malaria prevention and control over the period of 2009 – 2014. Read more about the Lantos-Hyde Act.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund)
The Global Fund is an international financial entity created in 2000 specifically to fight AIDS, TB, and malaria. They receive funds from donor country governments and foundations and distribute the funds via grants to organizations and governments battling these three diseases. The United States is by far the largest donor to The Global Fund. As of 2010 the US has donated $4.3 billion out of a total of $15.7 billion donated by the international community.
Impact of global collaborative efforts so far:
- Since 2000, declines of at least 50% in malaria cases and deaths have been recorded in 38 countries, including 9 sub-Saharan countries.
- Significant reductions in cases of malaria and 20-30 percent reductions in all childhood deaths are already being reported from six of the target countries. Though the decrease in childhood deaths cannot be entirely credited to malaria efforts, it is believed that the reduction in cases of malaria is a significant factor.
- Many countries also show significant increases in the numbers of women receiving IPTp and household surveys show that the number of children sleeping consistently under ITNs has risen dramatically – in Rwanda, for example, the number of children using ITNs quadrupled between 2005 and 2008.
Although major strides have been taken to decrease the damage of malaria, we are far from eliminating malaria worldwide.The original goal of the President’s Malaria Initiative of a decrease of 50% of the malaria burden among all the target countries by 2010 has not yet been achieved. The continuing commitment of the United States Government to provide adequate funding and support comprehensive strategies is needed if the world is to be able to defeat malaria.
What you can do:
Educate and mobilize your peers on Malaria!
- Show a movie discussing the issue. Check out our film library for a list of free films you can borrow from AIDemocracy. Films come with discussion guides and free shipping. It couldn’t be any easier!
- Organize an event on your campus. Bring in a speaker. Organize a debate. Stand up and demand change. Check out our event database for some great ideas to get you started.
- Request a mini-grant to make your film or event a success. We provide small grants to help pay for materials, food and speakers. Contact us to discuss.
- Speak out to the network. Write a blog for our site. Post something on our Facebook group. Share photos or video with us on YouTube. Share your opinions with other concerned students like you. How to submit materials.
- Ask for advice and support. Not sure how to get started? Need to talk through ideas for your event? AIDemocracy staff and student leaders are here to help
