Progress in fight against malaria

By Yvonne Chaka Chaka

In Georgia and the rest of the South, mosquitoes are about to make their unwelcome appearance for the long, hot summer ahead — just as we stop to recognize World Malaria Day.

But halfway around the globe, mosquitoes pose a threat year-round.

We’ve made incredible strides in the fight against malaria, and with increased support for innovative, comprehensive approaches to prevention and treatment, we just might find that we can bring the burden of disease down to the point where it is no longer considered a major public health problem.

Sound far-fetched? It shouldn’t. Even though malaria still threatens half the world’s population, particularly in the poorest corners of Africa and Asia, there are more effective tools for treating and preventing the disease available today at lower cost than ever before.

The Roll Back Malaria partnership — a network of governments, international organizations, companies, educational institutions, foundations and individuals — estimates we can virtually eliminate malaria deaths within five years.

But we can only do so by expanding access to both prevention and treatment. Global leaders must act accordingly.

The gains made in the past decade have been remarkable. Between 2000 and 2006, the nations of Eritrea, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe saw malaria cases and deaths drop by 50 percent or more.

A great deal of this progress has resulted from preventative measures such as the distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

But prevention can only be so effective. Improving the availability of treatment is the only way to definitively end malaria’s deadly reign.

At present, artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) is the best way to treat malaria. Combination therapies like ACT have proven much more effective than the single-drug therapies of the past, like chloroquine.

In fact, the parasite that causes malaria has been resistant to chloroquine in some countries since the 1960s.

Today, the World Health Organization reports that the malaria parasite is also developing resistance to another single-drug therapy, artemisinin monotherapy, which is the key component of ACTs.

So WHO officials are urging governments worldwide to halt the use of single-drug therapies and move toward more effective and less resistance-prone ACT treatment.

Unfortunately, combination therapies are quite costly. ACT can be 30 times more expensive than chloroquine, which costs just 20 to 50 cents per treatment.

In Uganda, a family would have to work for 11 days to afford just a single course of ACT for a 5-year-old child.

Given the high cost of treatment, it’s no wonder that just 3 percent of children with the fever in 18 African countries are effectively treated with ACT, according to the WHO.

Findings like these are troubling. If patients can’t access or afford ACT, then we’ll make little progress against malaria.

Governments, public health organizations and the private sector must therefore work to increase the availability and affordability of combination therapy.

But expanding subsidies for ACT will not be enough. We must educate those at risk of contracting the disease about the proper way to seek treatment — and how to avoid courses of action that may be ineffective or even harmful.

Too many African and Asian mothers are forced to watch helplessly as their malaria-stricken children shake from fevers. Many don’t know what to do or what treatment is best. They may not know if they should go to a hospital or a roadside kiosk.

And they may not even know that combination therapy exists and offers them a better chance for survival.

Every 30 seconds, a child dies from malaria, despite the fact that there’s a cure. This should not happen today — or in the future.

Every day that we lose a child to malaria, we lose the next generation of scientists, of artists, of entrepreneurs. It’s time to end this cycle.

Yvonne Chaka Chaka, an internationally renowned singer, is UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador against malaria and Ambassador for Roll Back Malaria. She is also founder of the Princess of Africa Foundation.