Malaria: Overview

	April 25, 2012, marks World Malaria Day, a day designated to call attention to malaria and to mobilize action to combat it. Learn more about the President's Malaria Initiative. Photo credit: Maggie Hallahan

Saving Lives

A Global Leader in Fighting Malaria

Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people by the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria is estimated to cause between 117 million and 241 million illnesses and more than 700,000 deaths each year. As many as 90 percent of these illnesses and deaths occur among children under five years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. In Asia and the Americas, malaria causes many fewer severe illnesses and deaths, but antimalarial drug resistance is a serious and growing problem.

USAID has been committed to fighting malaria since the 1950s. The Agency works closely with national governments to build their capacity to prevent and treat the disease. USAID also invests in the discovery and development of new antimalarial drugs and malaria vaccines.

USAID activities for malaria control are based on a combination of internationally accepted priority interventions and country-level assessments to achieve the greatest public health impact, most importantly, the reduction of maternal and child mortality. These interventions include:

• Insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs): Nets treated with insecticide are highly effective in killing mosquitoes. In addition, the netting acts as a protective barrier. Research has shown that consistently sleeping under an ITN can decrease severe malaria by 45 percent, reduce premature births by 42 percent, and cut all-cause child mortality by 17 to 63 percent. PMI is expanding access to free and highly subsidized nets while also promoting their correct use.
  
  
• Indoor residual spraying (IRS): IRS is the organized, timely spraying of an insecticide on the inside walls of houses or dwellings. It is designed to interrupt malaria transmission by killing adult female mosquitoes when they enter houses and rest on the walls after feeding, before they can transmit the infection to another person. IRS has been used for decades and has helped eliminate malaria from many areas of the world, particularly where the mosquitoes are indoor-resting and where malaria is seasonally transmitted. USAID and PMI activities include conducting environmental assessments, training spray teams, procuring insecticide and equipment, and developing and evaluating spraying activities.
  
  
• Intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women (IPTp): Each year, more than 30 million African women living in malaria-endemic areas become pregnant and are at risk for malaria. IPTp involves the administration of at least two doses of an antimalarial drug, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), to a pregnant woman usually through antenatal care services. The treatment protects pregnant women against maternal anemia and reduces the incidence of low birthweight babies, which contributes to between 100,000 and 200,000 infant deaths annually in Africa. PMI activities include purchasing SP, training health care workers in administering the drug, and providing information about IPTp to pregnant women and their families.
  
  
• Lifesaving drugs: Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the most effective and rapidly acting drugs currently available for treating malaria. PMI activities include purchasing ACT drugs; setting up management and logistics systems for their distribution through the public and private sectors; and training health care workers and community caregivers in their use.

	View PMI country profiles, updated as of April 2011.

President’s Malaria Initiative

USAID’s major malaria program is the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), which is a key component of the U.S. Government’s (USG’s) Global Health Initiative. PMI was launched in 2005 as a five-year program to reduce malaria through an Africa-wide program that works with national governments and global partners. For 2009-2014 an expanded PMI strategy [PDF, 482KB] has been developed to achieve Africa-wide impact by halving the burden of malaria in 70 percent of at-risk populations in sub-Saharan Africa (approximately 450 million people), thereby removing malaria as a major public health problem and promoting economic growth and development throughout the region.  PMI is a collaborative USG effort led by USAID and implemented together with the Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the Department of State, the White House, and others.

The burden of malaria will be reduced by reaching and sustaining 85 percent coverage of the most vulnerable groups (children under 5 years of age and pregnant women) with proven preventive and therapeutic interventions, including ITNs, IRS, IPTp, and the prompt use of ACTs for those who have been diagnosed with malaria.

The PMI focus countries were brought into the Initiative in a phased fashion:

USAID Partners in the Fight Against Malaria

The success of PMI and other USAID malaria programs are linked to the efforts of other major donors. In each of the focus countries, PMI works closely with ministries of health and national malaria control programs and supports their national malaria control strategies and plans in coordination with other national and international partners, including the Roll Back Malaria Partnership; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the World Bank Malaria Booster Program; UNICEF; World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Program; the UK Department for International Development; the private sector; and nongovernmental organizations, including faith-based and community groups and academia.

USAID is a member of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, a global initiative made up of more than 500 partners whose goal is to halve the burden of malaria by 2010. The Agency is also an active member of the USG’s delegation to the Global Fund. The Agency supports the international goals and targets of the Abuja Summit [PDF, 68KB], the Millennium Development Goals, and the Global Malaria Action Plan.

Other USAID Malaria Programs

USAID also provides support to malaria control efforts in other non focus countries in Africa, including Burundi, Burkina Faso, and Southern Sudan, and to two regional malaria control efforts in the Amazon Basin of South America and the Mekong Delta region of Southeast Asia. The latter two programs focus primarily on issues related to the identification and containment of antimalarial drug resistance.

President’s Malaria Initiative

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• Fast Facts about PMI [PDF, 326KB]

For more information on USAID’s malaria programs and PMI, please contact Chris Thomas at chthomas@usaid.gov.