USAID's Key Achievements

USAID Extends Effort to Create Malaria Vaccine
USAID Aggressively Pursues Plant Extract to Treat Malaria
Strengthening Roll Back Malaria.
Malaria Vaccine Development.
NetMark Partnership.
Effective National Policies in DR Congo.
Antimalarial Drug Resistance.
New Tools for Malaria Management.
Malaria Action Coalition.

USAID Extends Effort to Create Malaria Vaccine

USAID is providing a $1.2 million grant to Maxygen, Inc., to support the continued research and development of a new broadly protective malaria vaccine. Maxygen began work to develop a malaria vaccine in September 2001 under an initial three-year, $3.7 million grant from USAID. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also provides funding for this program. The creation of an effective vaccine is critical in the worldwide fight against the spread and devastation of malaria.
Malaria has reached epidemic proportions in many parts of the world. It is a public health problem in more than 90 countries inhabited by approximately 40 percent of the world’s population. Worldwide, it is estimated that malaria kills more than one million people each year, making it the world's third deadliest infectious disease, after AIDS and tuberculosis (TB). Malaria is the most common of the three diseases, with more than 500 million persons experiencing acute malaria illness annually, compared with 5.3 million for AIDS and 8.8 million for TB. Research on new and better drugs is an important part of USAID’s malaria strategy.

Access more information on USAID's Malaria Vaccine Development Program

USAID Aggressively Pursues Plant Extract to Treat Malaria

Facing an upsurge in drug-resistant strains of malaria that no longer respond to treatment by chloroquine (79 percent in Ethiopia, 64 percent in Kenya), USAID has aggressively supported the development of artemisinin-combination therapy as a safe and effective alternative treatment for malaria. Derived from a wormwood plant in China, artemisinin-based drugs are now commonly used in Southeast Asia to treat drug-resistant malaria.
USAID and its partners in Roll Back Malaria are currently negotiating with agricultural producers in Africa to encourage farmers to cultivate more artemisinin-based drugs, with an eye towards generating enough of the active pharmaceutical drug ingredient to triple the drug availability in 2005 to a total 150 million doses.

Strengthening Roll Back Malaria.

USAID has been a key partner in the RBM initiative since its inception in late 1998. This year the RBM partners carried out an extensive external review of its progress. USAID contributed team members and special studies to examine the status of RBM work in monitoring and evaluation, communications and behavior change, and complex emergencies. The report of this in-depth evaluation spurred a significant revision and revitalization of the partnership's governance structures and emphasis. USAID is also supporting WHO's Regional Office for Africa in expanding its monitoring and evaluation of RBM activities.

Malaria Vaccine Development.

In collaboration with public and private partners, USAID focuses on developing and testing malaria vaccines through its Malaria Vaccine Development Program. In the latest step forward, field-testing of a single-component malaria vaccine has begun in Kenya.

Access more information on USAID's Malaria Vaccine Development Program

NetMark Partnership.

• Research has shown that sleeping under an insecticide-treated bednet (ITN) can reduce mortality by up to 63 percent and morbidity by at least 40 percent, particularly among children under age 5 and pregnant women. To help stimulate commercial investment in ITNs, USAID has launched NetMark, an innovative program that has formed partnerships with 13 major firms (representing over 80 percent of the global capacity to produce and distribute ITNs) to develop ITN markets and expand the availability of affordable ITNs in five African nations. The program has helped eliminate taxes and tariffs on ITNs in Mali, Senegal, and Zambia. In 2002, it launched ITN marketing in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Zambia, selling more than 600,000 ITNs and 500,000 insecticide re-treatments during its first five months of operation.
  
• In 2002, during its first five months of operation, USAID ’s NetMark malaria prevention program sold more than 600,000 insecticide-treated bednets in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Zambia.

Effective National Policies in DR Congo.

Malaria infection in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is becoming more severe as a result of an outdated treatment policy, poor diagnostic capacity, and environmental degradation. USAID support focuses on improving the capacity of the National Malaria Control Program to develop and disseminate effective treatment and clinical management policies. A national malaria policy has been developed, and new treatment guidelines have been distributed. In response to reports of high chloroquine resistance, a new drug policy has replaced chloroquine with sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine.

Antimalarial Drug Resistance.

In Africa as elsewhere, growing antimalarial drug resistance is challenging malaria control. New drugs exist but are significantly more costly than current therapies. With USAID support, an Institute of Medicine panel is developing guidance for the RBM partnership on the most efficient means of financing these newer, more effective treatments. USAID is supporting operations research to study issues affecting the introduction of combination drug therapies in Africa and has also supported the preparation of a document on related regulatory requirements.

New Tools for Malaria Management.

USAID supported the development of a community malaria management tool in Africa and the Mekong Basin countries of Southeast Asia. The tool will help identify and explore factors associated with access to drugs, consumer care-seeking behaviors, and other practices that affect the spread of multidrug-resistant malaria in these areas. The tool, which is being applied in Cambodia, Thailand, and Senegal, will develop indicators for surveillance of drug use behaviors and identify interventions to promote a more rational approach to treatment. USAID has also addressed poor antimalarial drug quality in Africa and Southeast Asia by supporting assessments and analyses of drugs available through the public sector and in both formal and informal private facilities. The findings demonstrated that both substandard and counterfeit antimalarial drugs are widespread. Interventions and training to help countries monitor and respond to this problem will take place in the coming year.

Malaria Action Coalition.

In 2002, USAID developed the Malaria Action Coalition to coordinate technical assistance in Africa for achieving the RBM targets of 60 percent treatment of malaria illness, particularly in children under age 5, and 60 percent access of pregnant women to presumptive malaria treatment. The Coalition will work with regional groups, national governments, and private partners to engage in policy dialogue, strategy development, operations research, monitoring and evaluation, and performance improvement activities. Areas of activity will include epidemiology; behavior change; improved drug management, regulation, and practices; and pilot interventions in such areas as antenatal and maternal health care.