[afro-nets] Partnership To Stop Malaria Has Made Unprecedented Gains

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Partnership To Stop Malaria Has Made Unprecedented Gains, UNICEF
Says
----------------------------------------------------------------

More on the controversy
Claudio

--
From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel@undp.org

PARTNERSHIP TO STOP MALARIA HAS MADE UNPRECEDENTED GAINS, UNICEF
SAYS

New York, Apr 22 2005 5:00PM

The Roll Back Malaria Partnership, grouping governments, busi-
nesses and celebrities from around the world, has made unprece-
dented strides in reducing the spread of malaria in Africa by
promoting the manufacture on the continent of anti-malarial
medicines and millions of insecticide-treated bed nets, the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

Malaria kills nearly a million African children under 5 each
year, more than any other single infection, and those who sur-
vive may suffer from brain damage or paralysis, yet the disease
can be prevented by protection against mosquito bites and there
is effective treatment,
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_26123.html UNICEF said as it
prepared to mark Africa
http://www.unicef.org/health/index_malaria.html Malaria Day 2005
on Monday.

"In Tanzania, partnership enabled the introduction of new tech-
nology to Africa for the local manufacture of the most advanced,
long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets. Production,
which began in 2004, will hit 7 million nets by the end of
2005," it said.

The campaign last December in Togo ensured that 98 per cent of
households with children under 5 now owned at least one treated
net, with the overall percentage of households covered rising to
62 per cent from just 6 per cent, it said.

In some African countries, UNICEF said, local people have
launched agricultural projects, with the support of partners, to
produce the raw materials needed to make the most effective
anti-malarial medicines available, the artemisinin-based combi-
nation therapies.

"These projects could yield an estimated 35 million or more ad-
ditional doses of these medicines by the end of 2005," it said.

In China, Europe and the United Sates, pharmaceutical companies
have also been increasing production of the medicines, it said.

UNICEF said African Malaria Day would be observed around the
world, but it drew particular attention to celebrations sched-
uled to take place in Lusaka, Zambia, Brussels, Belgium, and
Washington, D.C.