MONROVIA, April 28(LINA) - U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator, Rear Admiral Tim Ziemerha, has disclosed that the global malaria initiative remains committed to bringing the tools and effective solutions to people in need and where they live in rural communities.
Ziemerha emphasized that global malaria will continue to invest in research and development for new and improved tools to combat this disease, from vaccines to new drugs to more sensitive diagnostics and surveillance systems.
“We will get much closer to a world without malaria,” he added.
His assertion was contained in a U.S. Government Ninth Annual Malaria Report titled: “Effort Saves Lives of Children, Reduces Malaria Transmission & Builds Capacity” released recently.
The report noted that the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) led by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), works with Liberia’s national malaria program, targeting pregnant women and children under-five.
The report also named these two groups as the two most vulnerable groups from malaria and focusing on rural areas where the greatest burden of the disease tends to fall on families with lower incomes and limited access to health care.
To date, 17 of the 19 PMI focus countries have seen reductions in childhood mortality rates, ranging from 18 percent (in both Liberia and Nigeria) to 55 percent (in both Senegal and Zambia).
These data contribute to the growing evidence that malaria prevention and treatment are playing a major role in these decreases in under-five mortality.
In Liberia, child survival is improving and all-cause mortality rates among children under the age of five have declined from 114 per 1,000 to 94 per 1,000 over the period 2009-2013, the Liberia News Agency (LINA) quotes the report.
PMI was launched in June 2005 by President George W. Bush to reduce the intolerable burden of malaria and help relieve poverty on the African continent.
The initiative has expanded under President Barack Obama, and receives sustained bipartisan support in Congress.
LINA GDJ/PTK