NEWS: Malaria Consortium on Radio France

3 November 2009
Malaria is an incredible burden on Africa; it is one of the biggest causes of mortality in children under the age of five. Pregnant women are also particularly vulnerable to the disease.  Yet it is a disease that is both preventable and curable.

Malaria Consortium’s Advocacy Manager, Karl Deering, made these comments during an interview today for a Portuguese langage news programme on Radio France.

Deering was interviewed on the occasion of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Pan-African Conference currently taking place in Nairobi, Kenya. This is the newest and largest gathering of global technical experts sharing and learning about successful approaches to malaria control.

“With some national Ministries of Health spending up to half their budgets on malaria control, Malaria Consortium focuses much of its work on building government capacity to manage the disease effectively,” said Deering. “We work in remote areas and improve distribution and data management capacity and also engage in research, working closely with civil society.”

However, Deering pointed out that there remained many obstacles to the ultimate goal of eliminating the disease, such as poor infrastructure in endemic countries, poorly trained health staff, access to appropriate health facilities for remote communities, and the high cost of effective drug therapies.

For more information, please contact Diana Thomas, [email protected]