ID :
21480
Fri, 09/26/2008 - 20:57
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/21480
The shortlink copeid
World leaders commit $3 billion to combat malaria
NEW YORK, Sept. 26 Kyodo - World leaders pledged $3 billion Thursday to finance a new plan aimed at
eradicating malaria.
A U.N.-backed international health consortium released the Global Malaria
Action plan after its meeting in New York that was held on the sidelines of a
special U.N. high-level conference on the Millennium Development Goals.
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and Irish rock star Bono were among those
who attended the meeting, which discussed ways to implement the MDGs -- a set
of time-bound objectives, such as eradicating extreme poverty and combating
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases by 2015.
Comprising U.N. agencies, the World Bank and health experts, the consortium,
the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, bills the action plan as the first-ever
comprehensive blueprint for global malaria control.
''This is a great plan,'' said Gates, whose foundation pledged $168.7 million
for research on new malaria vaccines. ''If we have the chance to save millions
of lives, and a clear plan to make it happen, we have an obligation to act.''
He said malaria, which is transmitted to humans via infected mosquitoes,
creates a burden to countries which can ill afford to fight the preventable and
curable disease on their own, especially those in Africa.
Children, pregnant women as well as refugees and HIV/AIDS patients are
particularly vulnerable to the disease.
''So the effect when you don't have these children suffering is that you free
up resources, allow them to live healthy lives and you get all of these other
positive effects that come in as health improves,'' Gates said.
After a comprehensive plan was instituted two years ago, childhood malaria
rates dropped by 50 percent in African countries such as Zambia, he said.
That plan relied on a combination of steps, such as spraying homes, providing
treated mosquito bed netting and carrying out a country wide intervention.
Bono, expressing his financial support in fighting against malaria, said, ''It
proves the case that if we get together....it just shows what is possible when
you match leadership with funding and with a strategic plan.
Currently 80 percent of malaria cases and 90 percent of the deaths occur in
sub-Saharan Africa.
However, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and part of Europe are also
impacted by the disease which disproportionately affects the poor who have
little recourse in fighting it.
''With about one million people dying from malaria every year, today's launch
is a real and vital turning point,'' British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
''It brings together a new coalition of forces-government, the private sector
and NGOs-to ensure we all rise to the challenge of eradicating malaria deaths
by 2015,'' he said.
Other organizations, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria, the World Bank, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees and other
private corporations, were among those that announced the financial commitment.
In the short term, the plan aims to reduce deaths and illness from malaria by
half from 2000 levels by scaling up access to bed nets, indoor spraying, as
well as diagnosis and treatment for all by 2010.
In the mid term, the goal is to reduce the number of deaths to near zero by
2015 with the goal of eventually eliminating the disease completely in the long
term.
The action plan is in line with the aims of MDGs.
Also in attendance at the MDG meeting were representatives from Sumitomo
Chemical Co., which is one of the leading suppliers of mosquito resistant bed
nets.
Hiromasa Yonekura, Sumitomo's president, talked about his company's latest plan
to increase its production of bed nets to Africa.
Currently Sumitomo produces over 30 million bed nets worldwide a year, but his
company is striving to make another 30 million nets available in Africa over
the next year.
''So in total a little bit more than 60 million bed nets a year by the end of
next year (will be available),'' he said.
While more than $3 billion in funds were committed by the various
organizations, achieving full malaria control is estimated to cost $5.3 billion
in 2009, $6.2 billion in 2010 and $5.1 billion annually from 2011 to 2020.
==Kyodo
eradicating malaria.
A U.N.-backed international health consortium released the Global Malaria
Action plan after its meeting in New York that was held on the sidelines of a
special U.N. high-level conference on the Millennium Development Goals.
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and Irish rock star Bono were among those
who attended the meeting, which discussed ways to implement the MDGs -- a set
of time-bound objectives, such as eradicating extreme poverty and combating
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases by 2015.
Comprising U.N. agencies, the World Bank and health experts, the consortium,
the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, bills the action plan as the first-ever
comprehensive blueprint for global malaria control.
''This is a great plan,'' said Gates, whose foundation pledged $168.7 million
for research on new malaria vaccines. ''If we have the chance to save millions
of lives, and a clear plan to make it happen, we have an obligation to act.''
He said malaria, which is transmitted to humans via infected mosquitoes,
creates a burden to countries which can ill afford to fight the preventable and
curable disease on their own, especially those in Africa.
Children, pregnant women as well as refugees and HIV/AIDS patients are
particularly vulnerable to the disease.
''So the effect when you don't have these children suffering is that you free
up resources, allow them to live healthy lives and you get all of these other
positive effects that come in as health improves,'' Gates said.
After a comprehensive plan was instituted two years ago, childhood malaria
rates dropped by 50 percent in African countries such as Zambia, he said.
That plan relied on a combination of steps, such as spraying homes, providing
treated mosquito bed netting and carrying out a country wide intervention.
Bono, expressing his financial support in fighting against malaria, said, ''It
proves the case that if we get together....it just shows what is possible when
you match leadership with funding and with a strategic plan.
Currently 80 percent of malaria cases and 90 percent of the deaths occur in
sub-Saharan Africa.
However, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and part of Europe are also
impacted by the disease which disproportionately affects the poor who have
little recourse in fighting it.
''With about one million people dying from malaria every year, today's launch
is a real and vital turning point,'' British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
''It brings together a new coalition of forces-government, the private sector
and NGOs-to ensure we all rise to the challenge of eradicating malaria deaths
by 2015,'' he said.
Other organizations, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria, the World Bank, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees and other
private corporations, were among those that announced the financial commitment.
In the short term, the plan aims to reduce deaths and illness from malaria by
half from 2000 levels by scaling up access to bed nets, indoor spraying, as
well as diagnosis and treatment for all by 2010.
In the mid term, the goal is to reduce the number of deaths to near zero by
2015 with the goal of eventually eliminating the disease completely in the long
term.
The action plan is in line with the aims of MDGs.
Also in attendance at the MDG meeting were representatives from Sumitomo
Chemical Co., which is one of the leading suppliers of mosquito resistant bed
nets.
Hiromasa Yonekura, Sumitomo's president, talked about his company's latest plan
to increase its production of bed nets to Africa.
Currently Sumitomo produces over 30 million bed nets worldwide a year, but his
company is striving to make another 30 million nets available in Africa over
the next year.
''So in total a little bit more than 60 million bed nets a year by the end of
next year (will be available),'' he said.
While more than $3 billion in funds were committed by the various
organizations, achieving full malaria control is estimated to cost $5.3 billion
in 2009, $6.2 billion in 2010 and $5.1 billion annually from 2011 to 2020.
==Kyodo
