The funding sources are coming into line. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria is a natural funder and leader. The World Bank can play a pivotal role, especially because the Bank’s new president Robert Zoellick has shown leadership on this issue in the past. The Bush Administration has recently increased malaria funding. The private sector is ready to step up with support in various ways, and the public is already donating tens of millions of dollars to buy bed nets for the poor through organizations such as Malaria No More (www.malarianomore.org). We are at the threshold of a great advance. It’s now time to cross it.
MORE TO EXPLORE
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Awash Teklehaimanot and Chris Curtis, "Malaria Control Calls for Mass Distribution of Insecticidal Bednets," The Lancet, June 21, 2007.
Jeffrey D. Sachs, "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: The Case of Malaria," New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 352, No. 2, January 13, 2005.
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Awash Teklehaimanot and Gordon McCord, "The Cost of Making the Poor Pay," SciDev.Net, October 31, 2005.
Jeffrey D. Sachs and Pia Malaney, "The Economic and Social Burden of Malaria," Nature, Vol. 415, no. 6872, Feb. 7, 2002.
Jeffrey D. Sachs and John Luke Gallup,, "The Economic Burden of Malaria," The Supplement to The American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, vol. 64, no. 1, 2, pp 85-96, January/February 2001
Awash Teklehaimanot, Gordon McCord and Jeffrey D. Sachs, "Scaling Up Malaria Control in Africa: An Economic and Epidemiological Assessment," American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, September 2007 (supplement).
Grabowsky M et al., "Distributing insecticide-treated bednets during measles vaccination: a low-cost means of achieving high and equitable coverage," Bull World Health Organ, 2005 Mar;83(3):195-201.
The 2007 GFATM report:
http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/files/about/replenishment/oslo/ProgressReport2007_low.pdf
This article was originally published with the title Ending Malaria Deaths in Africa.
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3 Comments
Add CommentOnce again, I agree with Jeffrey SACHS on many points.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a major health emergency, malaria is undermining progress in reducing child mortality.
To date, many, if not most, sub-Saharan African countries fall short of combating the disease: what can be done about it?
If shortfalls in performance are to be redressed, the malaria response of today and tomorrow will require to be transformed from an episodic and crisis-management approach to a thoughtful long-term response that emphasizes the use of evidence-based strategies and recognizes the need for long-term commitment.
Today, combating malaria involves more than a simple mix of actions and interventions to be scaled up. It also requires a sound policy environment targeted at improving governance, facing the facts, keeping up momentum on innovation, and building a critical mass of capacity for safety.
BETTER GOVERNANCE: KEY TO IMPROVING MALARIA RESPONSE
For the most part, malaria is basically a global development issue as challenging as any confronting the world, starting with sub-Saharan Africa. As distinguished from many other health problems, the disease predominantly proceeds from a damaging disconnection between where money is most needed (hygiene, sanitation and prevention) and where money is most spent (care and treatment, counterfeit drugs included). Based on these striking facts, malaria always shines a spotlight on the social and political dynamics that make populations vulnerable to environmental disorders - e.g. poor hygiene, inadequate sanitation, inappropriate waste disposal...
MALARIA RESPONSE: FACING THE FACTS
First of all, a salutary shift - from the reactive to the active and strategic - remains essential. Also essential is a strong foundation on which to build effective and innovative responses. However, as things now stand, a third requirement is critical in mitigating the damaging impact of the disease on individuals, societies and economies: Developing credible Malaria Response Information Systems.
What else? Malaria response must also be focused on:
- keeping up momentum on innovation and anticipation;
- building a critical mass of capacity for safety and efficiency.
IN SUMMARY
Now more than ever, it bears reminding that a central question must arise: How can the worst-affected countries make better use of whatever resources may be available to reduce malaria mortality and morbidity? The short answer is targeting resources where - and possibly also "when" - they can be most effective and efficient...
Doctor Michel ODIKA (Congo-Brazzaville)
WHY A MALARIA OBSERVATORY?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo date, malaria is still the leading cause of under-five mortality in Congo-Brazzaville. Due to high mortality ratios, this disease is putting the social cohesion under stress, and care infrastructures, as key components of the architecture of contemporary societies, are clearly not performing as well as they could and as they should. In the face of all this, people are rightfully impatient with the inability of health facilities to deliver levels of national coverage that meet basic needs, and with the failure to provide services in ways that correspond to their legitimate expectations…
MALARIA RESPONSE: OVERVIEW OF A GLOBAL CHALLENGE…
Spurred by the growing awareness of global threats and of the stratification of health outcomes along environmental and social fault lines, there is now a major renaissance in public health. For instance, the connections between health and other sectors are better understood and are bringing health to the attention of all sectors. Additionally, innovative and best-performing health information systems are occupying the centre stage of public concerns…
Today, the above-mentioned situation needs to be translated in multi-pronged cross-sector strategies to address the multiple and complex determinants of malaria and their influence on the global dynamics of the disease. Undoubtedly, movement in this direction is likely to fuel positive and productive change in the perception of how malaria-related services could, and should, operate in… Congo-Brazzaville.
Doctor Michel ODIKA (Project coordinator, Congo-Brazzaville)
MALARIA RESPONSE: MANAGING THE POLITICAL PROCESS
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA key lesson of experience with major governance reforms shows that their political endorsement critically depends on an agenda that is formulated in terms that show potential political dividends. To do that, this agenda has to respond explicitly to people’s needs and specify the expected health, social, environmental and political returns, as well as the relevant costs.
MALARIA RESPONSE: BUILDING A CRITICAL MASS OF CAPACITY FOR POSITIVE CHANGE
Innovative models, or approaches, that supply major health reforms with strategic intelligence demand a critical mass of committed and experienced professionals and institutions. For instance, they must not only carry out organizational and technical tasks, but they must also balance flexibility and coherence, adapt to new ways of working, and build credibility and legitimacy. It should also be noted that the sustainability of innovative models, or approaches, remains highly questionable without a significant change in paradigm of the training and retraining of participating stakeholders.
Surprisingly and fortunately, the above-mentioned critical mass of professionals is available in Congo-Brazzaville. Despite many challenges to overcome, there is growing indication that the political will for a renewal of the malaria response (Malaria Observatory) is taking hold – so to speak, it is not simply a political will, but one rooted in concerns relevant to society.
Doctor Michel ODIKA (Project coordinator, Congo-Brazzaville)