Roll Back Malaria project makes positive impact

June 8, 2011


GLOBALLY, deaths from malaria have been reduced from an estimated one million in 1998 to 850,000 by 2009. The overall reported cases also dropped from 350 million per year to 250 million within the same period due to the positive impact of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) project.
Although sub-Saharan Africa is an endemic area, the creation of the RBM partnership in 1998 set the stage for a new vision and energy that have become a key factor in mobilising and motivating major development actors and funders, among others, towards results-oriented collaboration and action.
Malaria remained a persistent public health problem and leading cause of death among more than three billion people who constituted half of the world’s population and lived in areas where transmission occurred.
These were contained in six different reports published by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership highlighting progress and impact made in the fight against malaria which were launched in Accra.
The launch, which was on the theme, “Achieving progress and impact in the fight against malaria”, was undertaken by the United Against Malaria of the Voices of Malaria-Free Future programme and the Roll Back Malaria project.
The RBM progress and impact reports focus on the successes of countries that have achieved 50 per cent control of malaria over the last 10 years. The publication of the reports aim at encouraging other countries to learn from such best practices.
For children under age five in Africa, the report indicated that malarial deaths associated with that age also dropped from an estimated 3,000 children per day to approximately 2000 children per day.
Ghana’s Health Minister, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, who launched the report said recommendations made in the six reports should be the gold standard for all countries, including Ghana which was yet to achieve a 50 per cent success “in our march towards eliminating malaria”.
He said in the past 10 years, 736,700 children in 34 African countries had been saved from malaria through the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs), Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS), effective medicines and preventive treatment during pregnancy.
Within the same period, household distribution and ownership of ITNs increased significantly in sub-Saharan Africa from three per cent in 2000 to 42 per cent in 2010.
He said malaria remained a persistent public health problem and a leading cause of death among more than three billion people who constituted about half of the world’s population and lived in areas where transmission occurred.
He reiterated that the creation of the RBM partnership in 1998 set the stage for a new vision and energy that had become key factors in mobilising and motivating major development actors.
“This is what has in turn led to the important progress and impact being achieved in malaria control and elimination in our various countries today” he added.
Mr Chireh said recommendations made by the six reports should be the gold standard for all countries in the march towards eliminating malaria.
He said Ghana’s journey towards achieving universal coverage with Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs) was on course and the implementation of the Affordable Medicines Facility was progressing steadily.
“I am hopeful that it would not be long when Ghana would join the 11 countries that have achieved the 50 per cent coverage for the key interventions and head towards the 80 per cent RBM targets” Mr Chireh said.
The Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, who spoke at the ceremony said in spite of the progress made in controlling the disease, there was the need to do more, particularly in the direction of community support for the preventive treatment in pregnancy, especially male support for their wives in ensuring compliance with the approved treatment regime.
For his part, the Dean of the School of Public Health of the University of Ghana, Prof. Fred Binka, who was the chairman for the occasion, said with current development in the area of malaria treatment, people did not have to die from the disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Daniel Kertesz, commended Ghana for its progress and used the opportunity to call for more efforts to consolidate the progress and impact so far made.
The reports recommended countries to support country-led development and implementation of strategic national plans based on evidence, including epidemiological assessments that targeted interventions of areas with the highest malaria burden.
They also called for increase in commitments from donors and endemic-country governments to ensure sufficient resources to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Global Malaria Action Plan targets.
Others are to scale up and sustain coverage of cost-effective prevention interventions such as ITNs, IRS and intermittent preventive treatment particularly pregnant women, infants and children.
The rest are increased access to and utilisation of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) to identify malaria cases and provide appropriate treatment.