Category: Ethiopia

A child with severe malaria. Photo by William Daniels. 

In March, Malaria Consortium was invited to a meeting in Kampala, which brought together the partners of the Improving Severe Malaria Outcomes (ISMO) project. During this meeting I was delighted to receive an award for ‘Best Practice for Delivery’ in recognition of my work on the project.

A patient can make a complete recovery from severe malaria if it is caught in time and treated correctly. Unfortunately, however, of the estimated 216 million cases of malaria each year, approximately eight million of which are severe malaria cases, treatment is often too slow and makes use of incorrect drugs.

The ISMO project, comprising a consortium of partners: Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), Clinton Health Access Initiative and Malaria Consortium, aims to strengthen the market to accelerate access to, and uptake of, injectable artesunate – the World Health Organisation’s preferred treatment for severe malaria. However, market barriers have hampered its uptake. The treatment is expensive and buyers often have concerns due to there being only one World Health Organisation (WHO) already tested and trusted supplier.

Low uptake of injectable artesunate has affected its accelerated adoption, preventing potential new suppliers to delay in making major commitments to marketing the drug. The treatment has also not been readily accepted by providers and patients, due to a lack of advocacy, education and training at all levels.

It is the role of the ISMO project to successfully create a stable and sustainable market for quality assured injectable artesunate with two or more suppliers, which will guarantee access to the treatment for severe malaria patients. This involves encouraging manufacturers to produce quality assured injectable artesunate and securing a commitment by donors to fund further production of the treatment.  The project is active in six countries, with Malaria Consortium focusing on implementation in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda.

A major obstacle for countries implementing this project is the procurement, shipment, clearance and distribution of injectable artesunate. The process is often complicated by delays which lead to drug expiration, stock outs and subsequent poor uptake from clients. The duty of ensuring that these commodities are received and documented at the airport or sea ports is facilitated by the project with support from National Malaria Elimination programme (NMEP) – the government agency responsible for malaria interventions in Nigeria.

One of the key causes of delay is the time it takes for government documentation in support of the commodities to be issued by the Budget Office of the Federation, within the Federal Ministry of Finance, at the request of the Federal Ministry of Health. This cumbersome task normally takes between 8-12 weeks.

However, because of the strong partnership between NMEP, Malaria Consortium, and our partners in the Federal Ministry of Health, I managed to obtain a duty waiver for UNITAID injectable artesunate, to be used as part of the ISMO project, in just 14 days. It is for this that I received my award.

The timely receipt of the duty waiter ensured that the artesunate was cleared and distributed to all health facilities as planned. One of my main recommendations to partners working on this project is for all malaria commodities to be included in countries’ malaria strategic plans. This gives ownership to the government and ease of reference for commodities at the port of entry.

The award demonstrated the results that this project and its staff can achieve when they build networks and partnerships with government stakeholders. Going forward, the network established with key government partners will ensure speedy movement and delivery of commodities required for the next phase of the project.