East African Business Week (Kampala)
15 November 2009
Dar es Salaam — Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are among the five East, Central and Western African countries which are going to benefit from the global funds US $336 million to battle malaria.
The Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has given out this money to Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ethiopia to purchase more than 50 million long-lasting insecticide treated nets in the next few months.
Speaking to the EastAfrican Business Week in Dar es Salaam last week, the Global Fund Executive Director, Mr Michael Kazatchkine said that the move amounts to a two-thirds increase of the number of bed nets in Africa.
Mr Kazatchkine added that the funds will help these countries move towards universal coverage targets of 80 percent of long-lasting insecticide treated nets by 2010.
"These bed nets will help prevent millions of cases of Malaria over the next few months," said Mr Kazatchkine
Malaria was a neglected disease when the global fund started, but, Mr Kazatchkine added, currently reaching global targets for malaria is no longer fanciful but something that can actually be achieved. the funds are expected to pay for 26 million long-lasting insecticide treated nets in Nigeria, 11 million in Ethiopia, 7.3 million in Uganda, 4.8 million in Tanzania, and 1 million in Kenya. Global Fund-supported programmes have distributed 88 million insecticide-treated bed nets worldwide. 68.4 million of these bed nets were distributed in Africa continent that contains about 90 percent of malaria deaths.
Each day approximately 2,200 Africans die from malaria, 85 per cent being children under 5 years of age. Malaria has been estimated to cost Africa more than $12bn every year in lost gross domestic product (GDP), even though it could be controlled for a fraction of that sum.
In countries that have conducted mass distribution of insect treated bed nets cdeaths from malaria have greatly dropped.
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