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Only strong political will can 'roll back malaria' in Africa

"Malaria contributes significantly to the high death rates of children and women recorded in Africa, even though we now have the means to make major inroads against the disease," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.

"We now have effective, affordable and doable interventions to prevent and cure malaria," she said. "But we cannot deploy the means if the political will is lacking," she added.

Ms. Bellamy made her appeal in Nigeria's administrative capital, Abuja, where African government leaders are attending the world's first-ever Summit on malaria. Hosted by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Summit is considering how to speed action to alleviate the poverty and human suffering caused by the disease.

Attending Heads of State are expected to endorse the goal of the global Roll Back Malaria (RBM) movement to reduce malaria deaths by half by the year 2010.

RBM was launched in October 1998 by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the World Bank and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as key partners.

Every year about 400 million people suffer from malaria and more than one million die from the disease. The death toll, which is heaviest on children, women and the poor, is fuelled by environmental changes and population movements resulting from political instability and civil strife. In addition, malaria is resistant to common and inexpensive medicines, mosquitoes are able to resist insecticides and national health services continue to face serious economic difficulties.

UNICEF is currently supporting malaria control programmes in 30 countries in Africa to reduce the toll of the disease on young children and pregnant women. UNICEF is working with its partners to ensure that in all malaria endemic communities:

• Every woman, especially during her first pregnancy, sleeps under a treated mosquito net;
• Every pregnant woman receives intermittent treatment for malaria;
• All families have access to effective first line treatment for malaria for their young children;
• All families have access to health information to ensure effective preventive measures are adopted.

Every African child and pregnant woman should be protected from mosquito bites by regularly sleeping under a mosquito net, Ms. Bellamy argued, adding that the greatest setback the RBM effort has experienced is the inability of families to afford the cost of nets due to the high taxes levied on them.

Ms. Bellamy urged African governments to abolish taxes and import duties on mosquito nets to make them affordable to poor families. She said that a high priority should be placed on the effort to provide every child and pregnant woman in Africa with treated mosquito nets.

"We recognize that there are tremendous pressures on the Governments meeting here," she told the leaders. "But now we have a clear-cut opportunity. Together we can prove that, with local participation and focused political will at all levels, leadership on behalf of children is the most effective key to progress in the new millennium. For the sake of children, we must not let this opportunity pass."

See also:

Rolling Back Malaria

African Summit on Roll Back Malaria

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