Malaria Day celebrated in Abuja

African countries and international partners involved in an initiative to curb malaria marked the first Africa Malaria Day on Wednesday in Abuja, Nigeria. The day coincided with the first anniversary of the continent’s first malaria summit, at which African heads of state adopted a plan of action as part of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) initiative launched in 1998 by the World Health Organization, UN Development Programme, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Bank. The main aims of the plan include ensuring that every family has access to bed-nets treated with insecticide. According to UNICEF, five African countries recently moved to make such nets more affordable by reducing or abolishing taxes on them. The five are Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. However, government subsidies are needed to make the nets affordable to the poorest families, according to a report written by Boston University for RBM, which aims to halve malaria mortality by 2010. The plan also seeks to make sure that adequate and prompt treatment is provided for the sick; that women undergo preventive treatment during pregnancy, and that additional steps are taken to predict and control malaria epidemics. “I am pleased to note that since the Abuja Summit, 21 countries have developed plans for multi-sectoral action to roll back malaria based on these strategic elements,” WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland told a news conference held to mark Africa Malaria Day. “There is also welcome evidence of increased donor support for malaria control, higher government spending, and more commercial investment in malaria-control technologies,” she added. Rima Salah, UNICEF’s regional director for West and Central Africa, said in a message that her organisation was ready to contribute its experience in field activities to the anti-malaria effort. This, she said, could help promote communication, support community mobilisation and private sector partnerships, and ensure targeted distribution of bed-nets to vulnerable groups at affordable prices. Malaria kills one million people every year, 90 percent of them in Africa. It intensifies poverty through the loss of working time, which is estimated to reduce agricultural production by up to 40 percent and cause the diversion of up to 25 percent of disposable income of the average family to treatment. [For more information, see separate item titled ‘First ever Africa Malaria Day’ and the following web sites: http://www.rbm.who.int http://www.unicef.org]