White House treats malaria as a global ‘human crisis’

Last year, the PMI targeted Angola, Tanzania and Uganda, spraying 414,456 houses, providing 855,305 treated nets, delivering 1.2 million drug treatments and training more than 8,000 locals on how to treat the disease.

Mrs. Bush said that by the end of this year, 70 percent of families in PMI-focus countries will have insecticide-treated nets.

The largest amount of money available, advocates and specialists said, is from the Global Fund, a partnership among governments, civic and social groups and the business world. The fund, founded in 2002, has collected and disbursed billions of dollars to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Its grants are helping to distribute 109 million bed nets and 264 million ACTs.

Businesses with interests in Africa also have reason to join the effort because malaria affects the work force. WHO estimates that malaria costs the continent of Africa about $12 billion in lost revenue each year.

Exxon Mobil — which has about 3,000 employees in Africa, along with thousands of vendors and suppliers — has spent about $40 million on malaria projects in Africa in the past seven years, including partnering with PMI.

One of its malaria-related efforts is a three-year-old partnership with Medicines for Malaria Venture and drug manufacturer Novartis to develop a child-friendly version of the popular ACT malaria drug. The drug is scheduled to be available early next year, said Dr. Steven Phillips, medical director for global issues and projects at Exxon Mobil.

Ms. Makalou hasn’t let her bout with the disease stop her. She is in Africa coordinating a tour with popular Malian singer Salif Keita. The tour, aimed at educating villagers about malaria, is sponsored by Vestergaard-Frandsen.

The U.N. Nothing But Nets campaign — whose founding members include the NBA, the United Methodist Church and Sports Illustrated — started a little more than a year ago and has collected $7 million from 60,000 donors. It delivered 150,000 insecticide-treated bed nets to Nigeria in November and plans to deliver 500,000 to other African countries this year.

“It shows that the American public is very interested,” campaign director Elizabeth McKee said.

Fox’s “American Idol” recently held a benefit concert that raised almost $70 million for various nonprofit groups, including Malaria No More.

Future challenges

Several challenges remain, one of which is tension over funding.

Congress allocated $30 million in fiscal 2006 for PMI and $135 million in fiscal 2007. A $300 million request for fiscal 2008 is pending on Capitol Hill. A proposal in the House would cut about $30 million from that request, something the Senate also is considering, said Nicole Bates, director of government relations for the Global Health Council, an advocacy group pushing for more funding.

She said the PMI has “done fabulous work in a short amount of time,” and should receive its funding.

The PMI is addressing another pressing issue: accountability for how the money is spent. According to its annual report, PMI will place an emphasis on accountability and transparency, and conduct surveys to track the malaria death rate.

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