While there is much concern now for securing adequate funding levels for US efforts to fight malaria, it is important to look toward future commitments, since malaria is not a disease that will be easily defeated. A quick search has found that several potential candidates for the US Presidency in 2008 have thought about the… Continue reading Could Malaria Feature in 2008 US Presidential Race?
Keeping DDT in the House
A recent posting by Christine Afandi summed up succinctly most of the human health concerns about DDT. While not downplaying human health effects, a bigger issue is, how can we keep DDT confined to the walls of homes? Shortly after Uganda announced its intentions to use DDT, neighboring Rwanda made the opposite decision and expressed… Continue reading Keeping DDT in the House
Communities Can Deliver for Malaria
The Tropical Disease Research (TDR) program of UNDP/World Bank/WHO/UNICEF piloted Community Directed Intervention (CDI) for ivermectin distribution for onchocerciasis (river blindness) control in 1995, and found that it provided greater coverage than distribution efforts organized by only the health authority. With CDI communities made decisions when and how to collect their annual ivermectin supplies, about… Continue reading Communities Can Deliver for Malaria
ACTs – Short-Term, Long-Term
Two recent articles demonstrate how countries, anxious to treat malaria cheaply with the newer artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), are exploring ways to grow Artemisia anua locally and feed that into the local pharmaceutical industry. Growing Artemisia anua in Kenya may offer local farmers a chance to ‘triple their income.’ This assumes large scale multinational commercial… Continue reading ACTs – Short-Term, Long-Term
Adolescents and Malaria – Ignoring a Generation
Adolescent health is often a neglected issue. To illustrate this, BBC recently featured the story a young Nigerian woman who married at the age of 12: “No-one has asked me whether I liked the man or not. When it was time for the marriage, I just heard that I had been married to him.†With… Continue reading Adolescents and Malaria – Ignoring a Generation
18 Million Nets and Counting
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) has delivered more than 18 million insecticide-treated bed nets as of December 2006. In Malawi alone, UNICEF reports nearly 4 million nets distributed since 2002 from various sources. During a campaign in May 2006, 2 million nets were distributed in Niger through IFRC, CIDA and… Continue reading 18 Million Nets and Counting
Flatlined Spending Won’t Save African Children from Malaria
The new chairmen of the Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate decided to keep U.S. government spending at its current level until October 2007. While getting rid of the porkbarrel earmarks is laudable, this action also means no new money for the President’s Malaria Initiative. Fiscal year 2007 PMI funds were going to be… Continue reading Flatlined Spending Won’t Save African Children from Malaria
Chloroquine is Dead, Long Live Chloroquine
The death knell for chloroquine (CQ), a cheap and relatively long lasting antimalarial drug, have been tolling across the continents in a westerly direction for decades and finally reached West Africa in the 1990s. In southern Africa, Malawi was one of the first countries to officially discontinue use of CQ in 1993. A recent article in… Continue reading Chloroquine is Dead, Long Live Chloroquine
Malaria Proposals Don’t Make the Cut in Round 6
A total of 85 grants were approved in Round 6 of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) at it recent Guatemala meeting, but malaria advocates are disappointed that only 19 (22%) of the approved grants were for malaria programs, and only eight will go to high-burden countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In… Continue reading Malaria Proposals Don’t Make the Cut in Round 6
Dispel the Myths; Preventing Malaria in Pregnancy is a Priority!
Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to malaria, which can cause life-threatening anemia, low-birth weight, and even death for the infant. Yet the international public health community seems to be overlooking the risks pregnant women and their unborn children face when infected with malaria. And myths and misperceptions at the country level also hamper effective control… Continue reading Dispel the Myths; Preventing Malaria in Pregnancy is a Priority!