Global Health Progress

Olivia Reyes is an independent Health Promotions Consultant and Public Health graduate student at New York University. She is currently working with Global Health Strategies to provide pro-bono communications for the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Secretariat.

In 2006, there were an estimated 247 million cases of malaria and 881,000 related deaths – 91% of which were in Africa. The disease continues to ravage developing nations, killing one child approximately every 40 seconds. In Nigeria, the country with the heaviest malaria burden, there are an estimated 57 million cases of malaria and over 300,000 deaths annually – approximately 250,000 of those fatalities are children under five.

For the first time in four years, leading experts from around the globe will come together for the 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Malaria Conference. The symposium, taking place Nov. 1-6 in Nairobi, Kenya, promises to unveil new findings and discuss recent developments in the global effort to eradicate malaria, a disease that – although preventable and treatable – still proves to be one of the deadliest and most persistent illnesses on the planet.

The Challenge of Resistance

Growing drug and insecticide resistance is currently threatening to undo the important progress the global community has made in fighting malaria. On Sept. 23, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning that the malaria parasite is becoming increasingly resistant to artemisinin, the standard treatment for malaria. Additionally, expanding access to and use of insecticides has put evolutionary pressure on mosquitoes to develop resistance to insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying, the most effective control methods available. If this resistance spreads, it could render our best treatment and control options useless.

The combination of new and improved drugs, diagnostics, vaccines and vector control methods remain the best hope for malaria eradication. The global community needs to support effective access to our best existing tools, accelerate the development of new tools and strengthen Africa’s ability to spearhead essential research. We must discuss financing and delivery even as we invest in research and development, and we must work together to fight the scourge.

Advancing the Global Fight

Recently, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria together with the Nigerian Health Ministry announced an agreement to provide resources for 30 million bed nets in Nigeria, half the number that is needed to meet universal coverage by December 2010. The amount represents the Global Fund’s largest single malaria agreement ever signed, and such commitments result in more united efforts to eradicate the disease. We also need to acknowledge that we have come to a very critical junction in the global fight.

Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the WHO recently highlighted the necessity of a united global health force: “It is in the best interests of all nations to build a common understanding of threats to health and to promote good will in seeking and sharing solutions.”

The 5th MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference promises to do just that – promote goodwill in seeking and sharing solutions, so that we can successfully develop, implement and sustain an effective malaria research agenda, and eventually come out from under our nets to live in a malaria-free world.