Fighting Malaria, Part 1

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2004-7-25

This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development
Report.

There was a lot of talk at the International AIDS Conference in
Bangkok about the Global Fund that finds money to fight AIDS. But
that is not all it does. The full name is the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This organization was created in
two-thousand-one to find more money to attack all three of these
deadly diseases.

The Global Fund has offices in Geneva. But it does not have its
own programs. It gives money to finance local efforts. Member
countries of the Global Fund have agreed to spend more than five
thousand million dollars through two-thousand-eight.

Because of this support, there is
now two times as much money to fight malaria as there was two years
ago. Malaria kills more than one million people each year. Almost
half of all people in the world live in countries where malaria is
found. But ninety percent of the deaths are in Africa, mostly in
children under five years old.

Pregnant women are also at high risk. So are refugees. They often
have little or no protection against the mosquitoes that spread
malaria. Aid officials worry about the situation for the refugees
from the Darfur area in western Sudan. Seasonal rains have begun.
That will mean more mosquitoes. These insects lay their eggs in
water.

Many countries, though, have success stories to tell about their
efforts to fight malaria. These include Malawi, Sri Lanka, Tanzania,
Vietnam and Zambia.

Progress often comes with the use of new medicines called
artemisinin-based combination therapy, or ACT. Older medicines like
chloroquine no longer cure many people with malaria. These medicines
have been used for such a long time that the malaria parasite
resists them.

ACT mixes several medicines. Health officials say it is now the
best way to fight malaria. But ACT costs about two dollars per
treatment. That is a lot of money compared to the older medicines,
which cost about ten cents.

Last week, the United States Institute of Medicine called for a
program to help pay for these new medicines. The proposed fund would
seek as much as five hundred million dollars per year. This would
come from rich countries and international aid organizations.

Next week, learn what some countries are doing to fight malaria.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen
Leggett. This is Robert Cohen.