Funding boost for fight against malaria

As the continent marks its second Africa Malaria Day on Thursday, it has been confirmed that Tanzania is to receive a substantial amount of money to fund its fight against the disease, which kills up to 100,000 people in the country every year. The UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID), told IRIN on Wednesday that both DFID and the Royal Netherlands Embassy had set aside a “considerable” amount of money jointly to fund a continued Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) and social marketing campaign in the country. Paul Smithson, DFID’s Health and Population Adviser, told IRIN the anti-malaria campaign was an ambitious one. "It has been approved, and we will be supporting a major ITN and social marketing campaign that we hope will help us to achieve our aim of 80 percent ITN coverage all over the country," he said. At the moment, there was 25 percent ITN coverage in Tanzania, but this was hoped to expand to 60 percent by 2005, and to 80 percent by 2007, he added. "If we can achieve these aims, it would mean that Tanzania has the highest coverage rates throughout Africa, and it would make a huge dent in infant mortality," he continued. According to Roll Back Malaria (RBM), a global partnership of governments, development and aid agencies, and private sector organisations, the use of ITNs can reduce episodes of malarial illness by up to 50 percent. RBM also reports that malaria is endemic in most parts of Tanzania, with few malaria-free areas, and that estimates from 1997 showed five million children under five and some 6.7 million women from 15 to 49 years to be at high risk of infection with the malaria parasite. RBM estimates that, of the more than a million worldwide malaria deaths occurring every year, some 90 percent are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Alex Mwita, Programme Manager of Tanzania’s National Malaria Control Programme, recently explained to IRIN the impact of the disease in Tanzania. "Health economists have estimated that the economic impact of the disease through loss in production and time at work results in the equivalent loss of 3.4 percent of the GDP [gross domestic product]." The disease often hits those at the lower end of the economic spectrum the hardest, as treatment and prevention have, in the past, been costly and inaccessible. According to Smithson, DFID’s programme aims to target the poorest 20 percent of the population, with specific objectives being established to ensure that at least 70 percent of the lower-income earners are protected by ITNs by 2007. Accordingly, it is notable that the spotlight of this year’s Africa Malaria Day has been aimed at the community. The focus of this year's Africa Malaria Day would be on health workers, mothers, shopkeepers, birth attendants and others who often provide the first point of contact for sick people living in remote, under-served areas, RBM said on its website. [For more information go to: www.rbm.who.int] Population Services International (PSI), a health organisation that is coordinating some of the activities to mark Africa Malaria Day, confirmed the importance of public awareness, especially in the rural communities, by deciding to host its events in Morogoro Rural, a region in the less developed south of the country. PSI's campaign is aimed at highlighting the need for both prevention and cure, using ITNs as well as drugs, Romanus Mtung’e, PSI’s Child and Reproductive Health Manager, told IRIN on Wednesday. "We are using methods of communication such as local theatre groups, billboards and even mobile cinemas that are common in rural areas to pass on the message," he said. "There have been great steps in cost-effective prevention of malaria through ITNs, but this has been largely in urban areas. Therefore, we need to focus on the rural communities, where access to malaria control is very low, and promote methods of prevention that are accessible, affordable and acceptable," he added.