PRESS CONFERENCE on africa malaria control strategy

On World Malaria Day, a United Nations-led partnership that included the World Bank; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the United States President’s Malaria Initiative; the Gates Foundation; and “Malaria No More” announced its strategy to achieve universal coverage of malaria control measures in Africa by 31 December 2010, following a challenge from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to reduce malaria in hard-hit spots within 1,000 days.

“We’re very pleased that the Secretary-General issued a call to all in the world for universal coverage for 600 million people at risk of contracting malaria in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Ray Chambers, United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria, when he met correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon to discuss the strategy.

The disease was costing the African continent an estimated $30 billion a year in lost productivity, he told journalists.  Providing at-risk populations with insecticide-treated bednets, household spraying, and public health facilities with better treatment and diagnostic methods would cost about $2 billion a year over the next three years.

“When you think of things as an investment, as I do with my financial background, an investment of $2 billion a year that produces a return of $30 billion is an investment that I would like to see,” Mr. Chambers said, adding that the partnership had already identified several sources of funding.

For instance, he noted that the PEPFAR -- President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- Reauthorization Act currently before the United States Congress would include $1 billion for malaria for the next five years.

Mr. Chambers stressed that eradicating malaria in the next 1,000 days was not the goal -- that task would require a vaccine that could be several years or decades in the making -- but to use already existing tools to drastically reduce the number of people catching or dying from malaria in target countries.  Of particular interest were those lagging in their Millennium Development Goal of reversing the incidence of that disease.

Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, who appeared alongside Mr. Chambers at today’s press conference, explained that the new artemisinin-based combination therapy, or ACT, was now being used to treat multi-drug-resistant strains of malaria to good effect.  Modern insecticide-treated bednets were also longer-lasting and used to keep malaria-bearing mosquitoes from getting to victims.

She added that pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis were working with the World Health Organization to keep combination therapy affordable, while the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was playing its part to keep costs manageable for affected Governments.  Talks with private donors to do the same were “in the cards”.

Better delivery methods were also ensuring that medicines, bednets and residual spraying reached more people.  Responding to a question about access to conflict zones, Mr. Chambers said that, in some cases, the 80,000 United Nations peacekeepers in Africa were helping to distribute bednets, which was particularly helpful in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the population was hard to reach due to displacement and fighting.

The United Nations-led partnership would not neglect what would happen beyond 2010, Ms. Chan assured journalists.  In the long term, she said, “we need to gear up on the research and development to come up with new drugs, new insecticides and also a new vaccine.  With the vaccine, the prospect of eradication is real.”

Mr. Chambers said that the partnership planned to provide the funding and strategy to ensure that full coverage by December 2010 would place malaria levels under strict control until a vaccine or another form of eradication came along.  He did not want to see a repeat of Sri Lanka’s experience, where lax attentionsaw the incidence of malaria rising after a brief decline.

Another aspect of their plan was to encourage the people being saved to have economic opportunity and not to depend on handouts.  “We’re looking into the viability of whether or not there’s a point in time where things like bednets, which have to be replaced every five years, might enjoy some type of market demand,” Mr. Chambers said, suggesting that bednets might be sold in stores and kiosks.

He also noted that 40 per cent of children who died from malaria were Muslim, and that Ambassador Khalilzad from the United States would bring together Muslim and Western leaders to tackle the cause.  A recent fund-raiser by the Ambassador of Kuwait had gathered $1.2 million for combating malaria.

A correspondent asked whether the United Nations was pushing for the use of insecticides, despite concern from environmentalists.  Ms. Chan said the World Health Organization was mindful of the need to maintain a balance between protecting the environment and ensuring people’s well-being.  Its guidelines on the employment of insecticides, endorsed by experts, had always stressed the importance of responsible use and good practice.

Ms. Chan said she was encouraged, by a heightened sense of political commitment to fight malaria in Africa.  Earlier in the day, Mr. Chambers and Ms. Chan were in Washington, D.C., with President George W. Bush to officially launch World Malaria Day, where Mr. Bush signed a proclamation on malaria.

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For information media • not an official record