House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health
Chairman Donald M. Payne
Malaria Awareness Day: Leveraging Progress for Future Advances
April 25, 2007
Last year, the President designated today, April 25th, 2007 as U.S. Malaria Awareness Day, is held in conjunction with the observance of Africa Malaria Day to raise global awareness of malaria and to reaffirm our commitment to fighting this terrible disease. In holding this hearing on "Malaria Awareness Day: Leveraging Progress for Future Advances" the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health and the Congress continue to show our commitment. We must continually assess what progress has been made in the global fight against malaria, particularly what the US government has done, and how to sustain that progress.
I just returned from the White House Rose Garden where President Bush officially launched the first Malaria Awareness Day. The President's Malaria Initiative is a program launched in 2005 which will increase the US contribution against malaria to $1.2 billion over five years and is designed to cut malaria deaths in half in target countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The President chose 15 African countries: Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. This program is a good ramp-up to fight malaria. Much more remains to be done of course.
Malaria -- the most important parasitic disease in the world -- is a global emergency. Each year, more than 1 million people die from the disease. In fact, health experts believe that between 85% and 90% of malaria deaths occur in Africa, mostly among children. Further, 300 - 500 million people are newly infected annually. Pregnant women and children are, in fact, the most vulnerable when it comes to malaria. Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds, causes between 20% and 25% of all deaths among African children under five-years, and constitutes 10% of the continent's overall disease burden.
Malaria has also been cited as a significant indirect cause of death. In sub-Saharan Africa, health experts contend that malaria contributes to anemia in pregnancy, low birth weight, and premature delivery, which, combined, kill from 75,000 to 200,000 infants each year. These statistics are absolutely staggering. They remind us that we simply are not doing enough to fight malaria.
We must remember that Malaria is a disease of poverty. Infection leads to a reduction in community and household productivity and income generation. In addition, it results in significant levels of household expenditure (up to 25% of available income) for treatment and prevention. According to the African Medical and Research Foundation, it is estimated that malaria costs Africa $12 billion annually in lost Gross Domestic Product.
Accordingly, we must get serious about ending poverty in Africa and other developing regions of the world. Poverty and disease go hand-in-hand. And we must do more to increase capacity of African nations' health systems which are burdened not only by a lack of resources, but also by the presence of US programs which, though well-intentioned, often draw particularly human resources away from national health services. So we must also step up our efforts to train health care professionals in Africa.
We must also remember that malaria's carrier is merely a tiny mosquito. So in addition to efforts to educate people, we must also do more to provide insecticide-treated bed nets, anti-malarial drugs, indoor residual spraying, and other measure to stop the spread of malaria.
So there is much to be done. Yet in the face of this pandemic, progress in fighting malaria offers great promise. Thanks to programs through the President's Malaria Initiative, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank, the private sector and other donors, we are achieving significant progress.
Just today, a new joint effort was announced between Malaria No More - a partnership organization made up of NGO's, private sector business groups, and private foundations such as Millennium Promise - and the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) to fight malaria in Uganda and Madagascar. Malaria No More is co-chaired by Ray Chambers, a philanthropist and humanitarian who happens to be a good friend of mine from my district in Newark, New Jersey. These joint efforts and others like it should be commended. We must leverage all the available resources we can to end the scourge of malaria.
The hearing will focus on the successes of these programs to date, including PMI, the Global Fund and the work of the private sector.
The hearing will also evaluate how to leverage this progress for future success - how to improve partnerships to ensure that interventions are making a difference in the field -
Emphasizing programmatic successes and the need for continued partnerships coincides with the theme for Africa Malaria Day, "Free Africa from Malaria Now: Leadership and Partnership for Results." Leadership is required at all levels to meet the challenges of scaling up malaria control. Partnership is key in overcoming implementation bottlenecks and ensuring that commodities begin to flow to where they are needed most. Only by working together can we hope to control malaria. Partners must coordinate and harmonize their activities under the leadership of countries with a clear focus on achieving results.
Today Congresswoman Watson, the subcommittee Vice-Chair, and I will be introducing a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Malaria Awareness Day and calling for Americans to do their part to raise awareness and support efforts to help save the lives of those affected by malaria. I welcome the support of the entire committee and encourage all Members to cosponsor.
We will hear from an excellent lineup of witnesses. ON our first panel we have Admiral Tim Zeimer, U.S. Malaria Coordinator of the President's Malaria Initiative who will provide an update of PMI and discuss future issues that need to be addressed.
Next we will hear from Dr. Stefano Lazzari, Senior Health Adviser at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria who will give a Global Fund update and discuss the great progress being made with national governments taking ownership of anti-malaria efforts.
We have with us Nils Daulaire, president and CEO of the Global Health Council, who will discuss the Link between malaria and larger development challenges, in addition to the linkage between US and global advocacy.
We will also hear from Dr. Adel Chaouch who is the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Marathon Oil Company on the role of the Private Sector in the fight as well as the importance of partnerships.
From Uganda we have Ms. Enid Wamani who is the Secretariat Coordinator for the African Medial and Research Foundation in Kampala who will share her field perspective and success of programs on the ground as well as the importance of capacity building.
And last but not least, Ms. Susan Lassen, Nets for Life Coordinator with Episcopal Relief and Development will discuss the role of the faith-based community in fighting malaria.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
