Global fund steps up efforts to curb malaria
Source: Reuters
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - An international fund said on Wednesday it had greatly expanded malaria prevention and treatment efforts this year that have helped beat back the disease in pockets of Africa, but much more needs to be done. Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite, kills about a million people annually, most of them young children in Africa south of the Sahara. Bed nets to protect against mosquito bites, insecticides and antimalarial drugs are effective ways to combat it. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the largest international financier of anti-malaria efforts, said it had provided in the past year about 10 million insecticide-treated bed nets, primarily in Africa. That's up from 6 million in the prior year. Since the fund started in 2002, it has delivered 18 million of these bed nets and hopes they will save the lives of 371,000 children over the next three years. The White House on Thursday brings together experts at a summit to shine a spotlight on the fight against malaria and encourage other countries, corporations, nongovernmental organizations and others to contribute to the effort. President George W. Bush last year announced a five-year, $1.2 billion program intended to cut malaria-related deaths in half in 15 hard-hit countries in Africa. The global fund, committing $2.6 billion to combat malaria in 84 countries since 2002, has also provided antimalarial drugs to treat millions of people with the disease. Richard Feachem, Global Fund executive director, called malaria a preventable and treatable scourge. "In the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, malaria just got steadily worse around the world, partly because we weren't doing anything. Programs fell to pieces. And the international community became very apathetic about malaria. And now that's really changed," Feachem said in an interview. About 30 percent of Global Fund money comes from the United States, its largest contributor. Feachem cited particular progress in a region encompassing southern Mozambique, Swaziland and northeastern South Africa, and also in Eritrea. People with malaria experience fever, chills and flu-like symptoms. Left untreated, it can cause severe complications and death. Worldwide. there are at least 300 million acute cases annually. About 90 percent of the deaths occur in Africa. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are due to address the summit. "The purpose of the summit," said Anita McBride, Laura Bush's chief of staff, "is to jump-start the effort, to educate the American public about malaria ... and to send a message globally to governments around the world that we need to join together to control malaria."
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