World Malaria Day 2014

by

World Malaria Day (WMD) is commemorated every year on 25 April and recognizes global efforts to control malaria. Globally, 3.3 billion people in 106 countries are at risk of malaria. In 2012, malaria caused an estimated 627,000 deaths, mostly among African children. Asia, Latin America, and to a lesser extent the Middle East and parts of Europe are also affected.

World Malaria Day sprung out of the efforts taking place across the African continent to commemorate Africa Malaria Day. WMD is one of eight official global public health campaigns currently marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Immunization Week, World Tuberculosis Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day and World AIDS Day.

World Malaria Day was established in May 2007 by the 60th session of the World Health Assembly, WHO’s decision-making body. The day was established to provide “education and understanding of malaria” and spread information on “year-long intensified implementation of national malaria-control strategies, including community-based activities for malaria prevention and treatment in endemic areas.”

Prior to the establishment of WMD, Africa Malaria Day was held on April 25. Africa Malaria Day began in 2001, one year after the historic Abuja Declaration was signed by 44 malaria-endemic countries at the African Summit on Malaria.

World Malaria Day allows for corporations (such as Exxon Mobile), multinational organizations (such as Malaria No More) and grassroots organizations (such as Mosquitoes Suck Tour) globally to work together to bring awareness to malaria and advocate for policy changes.

Each WMD focuses on a specific theme. The theme of World Malaria Day 2014 and in coming years is “Invest in the future: Defeat malaria.”

Goal: energize commitment to fight malaria

World Malaria Day was instituted by WHO Member States during the World Health Assembly of 2007. It is an occasion to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment for malaria prevention and control. It is also an opportunity:

  • for countries in affected regions to learn from each other’s experiences and support each other’s efforts;
  • for new donors to join a global partnership against malaria;
  • for research and academic institutions to flag scientific advances to both experts and the general public; and
  • for international partners, companies and foundations to showcase their efforts and reflect on how to further scale up interventions.

Global efforts to control and eliminate malaria have saved an estimated 3.3 million lives since 2000, reducing malaria mortality rates by 42% globally and 49% in Africa. Increased political commitment and expanded funding have helped to reduce malaria incidence by 25% globally, and 31% in Africa.

Malaria still kills an estimated 627 000 people every year, mainly children under 5 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2013, 97 countries had on-going malaria transmission.

Every year, more than 200 million cases occur; most of these cases are never tested or registered. Emerging drug and insecticide resistance threaten to reverse recent gains.

For more information:

Sources: WHO, Wikipedia

World Malaria Day Date

by

QUESTION

What is the background of 25 April to be celebrated as World Malaria Day? Why just 25 April?

ANSWER

World Malaria Day was instituted by the World Health Assembly at its 60th meeting in May 2007. As far as I know, the choice of April 25th was arbitrary – it was almost a full year after the instituting assembly meeting, perhaps intending to give the organizers plenty of time to make preparations for the first observance of the day. In any case, World Malaria Day is now a symbolic date and a rallying time point for malaria advocacy and control efforts.

Nikhil Rautela, Research Associate, AZ, Bangalore

by

AstraZeneca is working with partners such as MMV and AMREF to fight Malaria and some, of the company’s scientists have been writing about their experience in doing this. Nikhil Rautela, is a Research Associate at AstraZeneca in Bangalore, and writes:

My name is Nikhil and I am a Research Associate at AstraZeneca’s R&D unit in Bangalore, India. Working as a Research Associate, I test compounds from the AZ library for their activity against the malaria causing parasite which is grown in our laboratory in Bangalore. It is a very exciting time to be working for AstraZeneca and with our partners on this project where the concerted efforts are looking immensely positive.

World Malaria Day holds a special value to me and reminds me of the task ahead that we all have to eradicate a disease that has been affecting us for years. I was brought up in a region which is endemic to the disease; every year you hear tragic stories of how it has affected people’s lives.  Also, having personally suffered from malaria myself, it gives me a sense of deep involvement that I represent AstraZeneca in a partnership with the Medicines for Malaria Venture  which is one of the very few collaborations that work on malaria and shares the same passion that I have towards fighting the disease.

Although the disease has been eradicated from most of the developed countries, it still remains the second highest killer in the world. The biggest challenge has been early evolvement of resistance to every drug available which highlights the need for new drugs. The past few years have seen a renewed effort to tackle the disease head-on through constructive collaboration – one that I am part of. A united effort with partners through sharing of experiences and information is already bearing fruit by upping the pace of drug discovery.

Source: AstraZeneca

 

 

 

 

World Malaria Day 2012

by

“Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria.”

World Malaria Day was established in May 2007 by the 60th session of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO). The day was established to provide education and understanding of malaria and disseminate information on  malaria-control strategies, including community-based activities for malaria prevention and treatment in endemic areas.

According to the World Health Organization, approximately half the world’s population is at risk from malaria. And while malaria  is a preventable and treatable disease, it still claims the life of a child every minute, with more than 90% of all malaria deaths occurring in Africa. [Read more…]

EDITORIAL – Reflections on World Malaria Day 2011

by

How far have we come in the last four years?

Four years ago, it was estimated that a child died every 30 seconds from malaria, and that more than a million people each year were killed by this devastating and debilitating disease. Four years ago, the malaria advocacy partnership Roll Back Malaria organized the first World Malaria Day, and published the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP), which set comprehensive goals for the control of malaria world-wide, with the ultimate aim to eradicate malaria completely. [Read more…]

World Malaria Day: April 25, 2011

by

National Institutes of Health (NIH) statement on World Malaria Day, by B.F. (Lee) Hall, M.D., Ph.D., and Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health

In commemorating World Malaria Day and reflecting on this year’s theme, “Achieving Progress and Impact,” we celebrate the important strides made in many regions of the world to control malaria, while acknowledging the enormous challenges that remain.

In 2000, an estimated 350 million to 500 million clinical cases of malaria occurred worldwide and more than 1 million people died from the disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). By 2009, there were about 225 million cases of clinical malaria and 781,000 deaths.

Decreases in cases of malaria occurred in all affected regions, with the greatest decline in the number of malaria deaths occurring in Africa. Furthermore, in 2010, WHO certified that two countries, Morocco and Turkmenistan, had eliminated malaria — that is, reduced the incidence of infections in their countries to zero. Although these numbers reflect significant improvements, the global burden of malaria remains far too high and will require sustained and coordinated efforts from the international community to reduce it further.

Today we enter the third year of the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) http://www.rbm.who.int/gmap/gmap.pdf, developed by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/. The GMAP, an international framework for coordinated action against malaria, sets ambitious goals to control, eliminate and eradicate malaria.

The National Institutes of Health is committed to supporting the GMAP. To make continued progress and achieve long-term GMAP goals, we must build a sustainable pipeline of new products, novel interventions and innovative strategies to diagnose, treat and prevent malaria as well as interrupt its transmission. Below we describe examples of significant advances made in these areas during the past year.

The emergence and spread of parasites resistant to conventional anti-malarial drugs threatens treatment efforts. Recently, NIH grantees identified a novel compound  that rids mice of malaria-causing parasites with a single oral dose. This compound acts on a novel target in the parasite that may allow it to kill parasites that have developed resistance to other antimalarial drugs. Further studies will determine whether this compound can become a new therapy. Similarly, insecticide resistance can undercut mosquito-control strategies for containing malaria. Although research on insecticides with novel mechanisms of action continues, such compounds, like current insecticides, run the risk of selecting for the emergence and spread of mosquitoes resistant to the new insecticide. Therefore, novel approaches must be pursued.

NIH-funded researchers recently identified a genetically modified fungus  that blocks development of malaria parasites in the mosquito and thereby interrupts malaria transmission. Because the fungi do not kill the mosquitoes, they would be unlikely to develop resistance. Such fungi could become an important malaria intervention if future studies demonstrate that they are safe and effective.

Within the next few months, we expect to learn the results of a large-scale clinical trial in Africa of a candidate malaria vaccine known as RTS,S. We all hope that an effective vaccine that confers protection against the most deadly type of disease, Plasmodium falciparum malaria, soon will be available. Meanwhile, efforts to develop new and improved malaria vaccines continue globally, with 16 candidates currently in preclinical development and another 23 in clinical trials.

Early this year, we joined with others in announcing a renewed interest in the possible eradication of malaria, as described in the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (MalERA), the result of a global consultation effort among multiple stakeholders and disciplines. A key message of MalERA is that the tools to eradicate malaria do not exist and must be developed. A major challenge will be to continually assess the changing epidemiology of malaria as control and elimination efforts prove successful to ensure that appropriate tools and interventions are developed and effectively deployed.

To bridge clinical and field research with new laboratory-based methods in immunology, molecular biology and genomics, we at the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recently launched a network of International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research. This network, which supports teams of scientists conducting research in more than 20 malaria-endemic countries, will provide new insights from research conducted in the context of rapidly changing malaria epidemiology.

A strong foundation of scientific insight, technological innovation and effective implementation has enabled us to achieve progress and advance several fronts in the fight against malaria. We must sustain this critical foundation as we continue to work together toward our shared goals of global malaria control, elimination and eradication.

Source: NIH

“SMS for Life” Malaria Initiative for Tanzania Announced

by

In commemoration of World Malaria Day 2011 (25 April), organizations in an innovative public-private initiative announce the nationwide roll-out of a unique malaria treatment access initiative, “SMS for Life,” across the United Republic of Tanzania. The roll-out follows a successful pilot project where mobile and electronic mapping technology was used to track the stock levels of anti-malarial drugs at health facilities to manage supplies of these essential treatments.

Launched in 2009, the “SMS for Life” pilot ran across three districts in Tanzania, ensuring access to essential malaria treatments for 888,000 people. 99% of health facilities involved avoided stock-outs of the artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), one of the main anti-malarial medicines.2 “SMS for Life” will now be deployed across 5,000 health facilities in 131 districts in Tanzania, covering a population of over 40 million.

Under the auspice of the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, this roll-out is led by Novartis and supported by Vodacom, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, all under the umbrella of the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

Malaria kills about 800,000 people each year, the vast majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa where the disease is a leading cause of death for children under five, claiming the life of a child every 45 seconds.2 Although malaria is preventable and treatable, life-saving medicines do not always reach the patients who need them, particularly those living in remote areas. Stock-outs are a major hurdle in the maintenance of access to essential malaria treatments.

H.E. Dr Hadji Hussein Mponda, Minister for Health & Social Welfare in Tanzania, said “the simple truth is that if there are no effective malaria treatments available in the health facilities then people will likely die, especially young children and pregnant women who are most at risk of the disease. Reducing antimalarial drugs stock-outs saves lives, and so we are delighted that the SMS for Life programme that improves stock position information will now be rolled-out across Tanzania and we welcome this innovation.”

“SMS for Life” has demonstrated that we can overcome the longstanding problem of stock-outs at the health facility level. This flexible scheme can be implemented quickly and at relatively low cost in any country to track any medicine,” said Jim Barrington, “SMS for Life” Program Director and former Chief Information Officer at Novartis. “It’s rewarding to see how a unique partnership, which combines the specific skills and experience of its various members to deliver an innovative use of everyday technologies, positively impacts the lives of malaria patients, their families and communities. “SMS for Life” also has great potential to be implemented in all malaria endemic countries and within other disease areas.”

In addition to the roll-out in Tanzania this year, two further pilots will start. Kenya, with funding from Novartis via the global employee survey donation program, will implement a five district pilot to track ACTs and rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), in addition to collecting weekly case management data. MMV, through partnership with University of Oxford, will provide technical support for the implementation and evaluation of the pilot project. Ghana, with funding from Swiss TPH, will implement a six district pilot to track malaria medicines, an antibiotic and RDTs. Accurately monitoring the amount of essential medication, such as ACTs and quinine injectables, available in a given location, reduces the risk of shortages and stock-outs and ensures that treatments are available to malaria patients, even in the most remote areas, where and when they are needed.

Each week, automated SMS messages are sent to staff at participating healthcare facilities, prompting them to check the stock of anti-malarial medicines, and reply with an SMS detailing current stock levels. These messages are collected in a central web-based system that provides the District Medical Officers and other users with real-time stock level information, accessible via the Internet or their mobile phone. Using this information, District Medical Officers are able to redistribute essential medicines to where they are most needed and coordinate emergency deliveries to health facilities if necessary.

The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC) Business Action on Health Awards Review Committee has recently selected the “SMS for Life” program as a Finalist for the Technology for Health award.

About “SMS for Life”
“SMS for Life” is an innovative public-private partnership that harnesses everyday technology to improve access to essential malaria medicines in rural areas. It uses a combination of mobile phones, SMS messages and electronic mapping technology to track weekly stock levels at public health facilities in order to eliminate stock-outs, increase access to essential medicine and reduce the number of deaths from malaria.

“SMS for Life” was initially piloted across three districts in the United Republic of Tanzania, covering 129 health facilities and 226 villages, representing 1.2 million people. When launched in 2009, 26% of all health facilities did not have any ACTs in stock, but by the end, 99% had at least one ACT dosage form in stock. In addition, 888,000 people in the three pilot districts had access to all malaria treatments at the close of the pilot, versus 264,000 people at the start, which helped to reduce the number of deaths from malaria.

About the partners
Under the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) is the Directorate of Preventive Services. NMCP is the custodian of all malaria prevention and control activities in the country. The NMCP is the owner and main user of the ‘SMS for Life’ solution and coordinates all project activities in the country, including planning, implementation & evaluation of the project. The NMCP also makes sure that all the districts selected are fully engaged in the process.

Novartis drives the overall initiative and has taken the lead in defining the solution, sourcing the partners, establishing a steering committee, liaising with the Ministry of Health in Tanzania and RBM Partnership Secretariat and providing all the resources and funding necessary to complete the pilot in Tanzania.

Medicine for Malaria Venture (MMV) is, along with SDC, one of two funders of the country implementation of the solution. They also manage funds from SDC, giving them the role of managing all project funding. In addition, MMV is coordinating the national training program and is contracting technology deployment required to affect this rollout.

The Swiss Agency for Development (SDC) is the second and major funder of the Tanzanian nationwide roll-out. Its grant is managed by MMV.

Vodacom, a local Tanzanian Mobile operator is providing, in addition to promotional materials like tshirts, smart phones with Internet and data access for use by all District Medical Officers and Malaria Focal persons.

Vodafone supported the design, development and the implementation of the technical solution for the Tanzanian Pilot in 155 health facilities until its completion in February 2010.

IBM supported the overall management of the pilot project and the provision of an on-line collaboration tool, “Lotus Live”. The tool allowed all the project partners to coordinate their inputs.

RBM Partnership Secretariat facilitates oversight, including the work of the steering committee and leads advocacy activities. It helps provide ongoing guidance throughout the project, placing it in the broader context of RBM’s activities.

About RBM
The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership is the global framework for coordinated action against malaria. It provides a neutral platform for consensus-building and developing solutions to challenges in the implementation of malaria control interventions and strategies. RBM is a public-private partnership that also facilitates the incubation of new ideas and lends support to innovative approaches.

The Partnership promotes high-level political commitment and keeps malaria high on the global agenda by enabling, harmonizing and amplifying partner-driven advocacy initiatives. Founded by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and UNDP and strengthened by the expertise, resources and commitment of more than 500 partner organizations, the Partnership secures policy guidance and financial and technical support for control efforts in countries and monitors progress towards universal goals.

Source: World Health Organization (WHO), Roll Back Malaria