UNICEF says money is available to provide all Africans in need with anti-malaria bed nets

UN says money available for anti-malaria bed nets

WASHINGTON — On the eve of World Malaria Day, the head of UNICEF announced Friday that the agency has enough money to provide bed nets treated with long-lasting insecticide to everyone in Africa at risk of malaria by 2010, which could eliminate by 2015 the almost 1 million deaths annually from the killer disease.

Ann Veneman’s announcement at a global conference on malaria was greeted by loud applause, as was the announcement that President Barack Obama is committed to making the United States a global leader in ending malaria deaths by 2015.

“It is a target we can hit,” Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said after making the announcement in the keynote speech to the conference. “Malaria, simply put, is something we can end. And today I am here to say that malaria is a scourge that we will end.”

Obama, in a statement issued later, urged the international community to redouble its efforts “to rid the world of a disease that does not have to take lives.”

“The United States stands with our global partners and people around the world to reaffirm our commitment to make the U.S. a leader in ending deaths from malaria by 2015,” the president said.

Veneman said a new report by the U.N. children’s agency, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria shows that “major and measurable successes are being achieved in fighting a disease that is one of the leading killers of children and a major cause of poverty.”

“Global production of insecticide-treated bed nets has tripled since the year 2004, and this is the exciting point: financing is now available to purchase over 240 million nets in 2009 and 2010, putting Africa well on the way to achieve the goal of universal coverage by 2010,” she said.

UNICEF said it costs an average of US$10 to buy and distribute each long-lasting net, so the cost of 240 million would be about US$2.4 billion.

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 250 million people get malaria every year, and it kills almost 1 million, about 90 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and the vast majority young children. Many drugs have lost their effectiveness against the malaria parasite, which hitchhikes on mosquitoes, and there is no vaccine, although advanced testing of an experimental candidate that promises partial protection is under way.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there has been a “tremendous” response to his call on the first World Malaria Day a year ago “to put a stop to malaria deaths by ensuring universal coverage by the end of 2010.”

“To date, we have been able to provide mosquito nets to more than 40 percent of people at risk of dying from this disease,” he said in a statement. “In many countries, malaria deaths have decreased by two-thirds.”

Ban urged increased efforts, especially during the current economic crisis, to ensure that malaria cases and deaths do not start increasing.

“If we can maintain current levels of progress, by 2015 there could be nearly zero preventable deaths from malaria,” he said.

Veneman said that while financing is crucial to provide universal coverage of bed nets, it is also crucial to ensure that every person who has a net uses it, and that nets are distributed to every single person in the remotest rural areas of Africa.

While the nets being distributed today are long-lasting, she added, they do wear out and will need to be replaced, so the program must continue.

The conference brought together global leaders in the fight against malaria and representatives of religious organizations to launch a campaign to mobilize new resources to help churches, mosques and other religious institutions in Africa fight the disease more effectively by increasing the distribution of mosquito nets and providing community education.

Rice, the U.S. ambassador, said the United States plans to commit $527 million to fighting malaria in fiscal 2009 and plans to increase funding to combat the disease.

She praised the anti-malaria coalition for achieving results like the 29 percent drop in deaths of children under 5 in Zambia in five years, and the 32 percent drop in under-5 deaths in Rwanda between 2005 and 2008.

“We have learned over the past few years that faith-based organizations have some distinct advantages that make them exceptional partners in the struggle to end malaria,” Rice said. “They have nearly universal reach: many rural areas lack health clinics, but they almost always have a mosque or a church.”

Those organizations also draw “from a deep well of community trust” and can mobilize volunteers to educate their neighbors on the use of bed nets, she said.

Many key players announced new financial commitments — with Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, receiving US$334 million over the next two years from the Global Fund and an additional US$300 million from the World Bank to expand efforts to control malaria.

Nigeria’s Health Minister Babatunde Osotimehin told the conference his country was grateful for the assistance and said it would be used wisely and transparently.

“I assure you, the next time I stand here I will be announcing that we’ve rid Nigeria of malaria,” he said.