$100B Plan Seeks to Cut Malaria Cases, Deaths by 90 Percent
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Major health, development and financial agencies have unveiled a $100 billion plan to cut global malaria cases and deaths by 90 percent over the next 15 years. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership says its new strategy will result in a health and economic bonanza for developing countries.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goal to halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria by 2015 has been met. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership is now gearing up to pursue the more ambitious malaria elimination targets set out in theU.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
The SDGs call for a 90 percent reduction in malaria cases and deaths globally by 2030 and eliminating the disease in 35 countries.
Roll Back Malaria Partnership Executive Director Fatoumata Nafo-Traore calls this an ambitious, but achievable goal. She said it can be done with an investment of $100 billion and universal access to well targeted and proven tools.
Nafo-Traore told VOA the new strategy consists of three major interventions. The first is prevention, which she said involves the widespread use of insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying, as well as the optimal use of resources for limiting or eradicating malaria-bearing mosquitoes.
Correctly diagnosing the illness, she said, is the second element.
Source: Voice of America (link opens in a new window)
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