New Impetus for UN Decade to Roll Back Malaria (2001-2010)
By Nuchhi R. Currier for the Chronicle
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| Five years after the launch of Roll Back Malaria (RBM), a new RBM Partnership Board has been established to oversee the future expansion of the project. The Partnership on 30 January named as its first Executive Secretary Mali's ex-Minister of Health, Dr. Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, whose extensive experience with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) promises to refocus efforts towards country-level support in future plans and activities. A greater emphasis on monitoring and scrutiny is one of the stated goals of the new initiative. "The revitalized Secretariat and new RBM governance structures will create the conditions for better coordination, advocacy and capacity building to enhance the operations of all partners on the ground as they intensify the battle against malaria," Dr. Nafo-Traore said. Initiated in 1998 by the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, RBM is a global partnership of WHO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank to combat malaria. It also includes national governments, civil society, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, professional associations, the private sector and the media. Malaria, a life-threatening parasitic disease transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito, is widespread in tropical and sub-tropical regions and, along with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, is one of the major public health challenges undermining development in these endemic areas. Malaria parasites become drug-resistant, thus creating new challenges for medical research. The disease kills over 1 million people each year and affects the health of another 3 million, causing recurring and acute illness. The RBM Partnership has raised global awareness of malaria, succeeded in generating increased resources and arrived at a consensus between partners regarding types of tools and priority interventions required. The goal of the Partnership is to halve the number of those affected by 2010. Since 90 per cent of the malaria burden is in Africa, south of the Sahara, affecting mostly young children and pregnant women, RBM is focusing mainly on these two vulnerable groups. Its purpose is to expand the use of interventions, such as prompt access to effective treatment, promotion of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and improved vector-control, prevention and management of malaria in complex emergencies, as well as containing malaria epidemics. The Partnership supports work which results in more effective interventions, like medicines and longer-lasting insecticide-treated netting, and encourages research and development work on better drugs and insecticides, malaria vaccines and possibly genetically modified mosquitoes that will not transmit malaria. In Africa, malaria has been identified as both a disease of poverty and a cause of poverty. Economists believe that it is responsible for a "growth penalty" of up to 1.3 per cent annually in some African countries, causing decreased gross national product and restraining economic growth. It affects human resources as well, in loss of life and productivity, in addition to severely affecting children's schooling and social development.
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