Reflections from the PMI Bi-Annual Forum; Lois Quam, GHI Executive Director

Last week I made my second trip to Senegal to attend the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) bi-annual forum to discuss critical policy, program and technical issues in malaria prevention and control. Senegal, one of the 17 PMI focus countries, embodies how the United States Government, through USAID, the Peace Corps, the Department of Defense, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can work together to improve health.

Today, progress against malaria is one of development’s most impressive stories. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 2010 World Malaria Report, the estimated number of global malaria deaths has fallen from about 985,000 in 2000 to about 781,000 in 2009. PMI recently released its fifth annual report describing the role and contributions of the U.S. Government in the effort to reduce the burden of malaria in Africa. In the last five years, substantial reductions in mortality among children under five have been recorded together with improvements in coverage with malaria interventions. Of the seven PMI focus countries where baseline and follow up health surveys have been conducted, mortality among children under five has dropped by 23 to 36 percent. In Senegal alone, malaria cases have declined by 41 percent—from about 300,000 to around 175,000—in one year. Child mortality decreased 30 percent between 2005 and 2009, which malaria experts believe is largely because of the drop in malaria deaths.

The incredible progress we have made against malaria is due in large part to effective partnerships with host governments, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank, as well as other non-governmental and private organizations too numerous to count.

Through PMI, we are generating a cascade of public-health benefits. By preventing children from contracting malaria, we are reducing co-morbidity from conditions, such as pneumonia and malnutrition, making them healthier and more productive over the long run, and unburdening the health system to free up resources to address other critical needs.

PMI reflects the vision of President Obama and Secretary Clinton for the Global Health Initiative (GHI) –increasing the efficiency and impact of our investments by focusing on the person not the disease – making it easier for a woman to obtain all of the services she needs so that a woman we save from malaria or another infectious disease does not die in childbirth six months later.

There are real opportunities for GHI to build on the platform of success that PMI provides. For example, expanding upon the efforts to ensure that women are at the center of our programs and strengthening our coordination with maternal and child health programs helps us improve country’s capacity to deliver effective malaria prevention and control measures as part of a larger package of integrated maternal and child health services.

The greatest burden of malaria falls on those who are least able to protect themselves. In most parts of the world, malaria is primarily a disease of rural areas, affecting those residents who are poorer and have only limited access to quality health care. Additionally, in sub-Saharan Africa, malaria affects predominantly pregnant women and children under the age of five. And, the cost to the African continent in terms of lost productivity is devastating.

Through our women-centered approach and our efforts to ensure integration and strengthen health systems, including integrated community-based health programs, we are better able to target and reach those high-risk, disadvantaged and vulnerable populations.

By doing so, we can remove malaria as a public health problem in Africa and eventually close the chapter on this deadly disease.