SDC-Update: Malaria

Malaria continues to represent a life-threatening menace and an economic impediment for about 2 billion people in the world. Much of this is due to weak health systems; large-scale population movements; deteriorating environmental conditions; climatic changes; spreading drug resistance; and in certain cases, uncontrolled development activities. In many countries the workforce’s productivity is reduced due to illness while the cost of disease control cripples the economies of poor countries.

The current movement to fight the disease is backed by a global partnership of governments, development agencies, research groups, the private sector and ordinary men and women around the world. Roll Back Malaria is the greatest concerted effort to combat malaria that the world has ever seen. Roll Back Malaria is based on collective strategies and actions that aim to reduce malaria suffering and death and to alleviate the poverty induced by the disease.

Target: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. (UN Millennium Goal)

Malaria control strategies have undergone intensive re-examination in recent years. Worldwide the two crucial aspect of malaria control are (1) prevention, mainly in the form of vector control, and (2) prompt and efficacious treatment of all clinical cases. In sub-Saharan Africa, vector control can be implemented with two main strategies. Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) is done extensively in southern Africa but nowhere else, except in a few settings promoted by the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). If the vector population is endophilic and the insecticide available effective, then IRS can inhibit transmission by reducing the survival of malaria vectors entering the buildings where people sleep.

Solid evidence shows that insecticide treated nets (ITN) are a key intervention for prevention and control and can significantly reduce malaria related morbidity and mortality. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has supported the ITN Upscaling Project in Tanzania (NATNETS) through the strengthening of the ITN cell within the National Malaria Control Programme (Netcel). Focus areas include country wide coordination of all stakeholders, advocacy; keeping taxes on nets and insecticides low; design and implementation of a voucher-based subsidy scheme for pregnant women and infants which is funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the US President’s Malaria Initiative.

Introduction by Swiss Tropical Institute (2008) and WHO Roll Back Malaria