NEWS RELEASE - Malaria Consortium Secures an Innovative Grant from the Canadian International Development Agency to reduce child deaths in Africa.

Press release

London – Friday 24th, April 2009:  Malaria Consortium, the world’s leading not-for-profit dedicated to malaria control, has been awarded 20 million Canadian dollars by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) over four years to tackle the most common killers of children, fevers caused by malaria and pneumonia.
 

Each day 3000 children will die from malaria.  Malaria along with pneumonia, diarrhoeal disease and measles are the four diseases primarily responsible for the 11 million child deaths per year. Children affected by fever have a short window to survive and should be treated; however, this is only possible when trained health workers are on-hand and supplies are available in their own village or town. Funding provided will provide prompt and effective fever treatment solutions for delivery at the community level that are crucial to preventing serious illness and death.
 

Studies have shown that children need to receive anti-malaria medication within 24 to 48 hours after onset of severe fever to avert death. In areas targeted by our programme with CIDA, children under five will now be able to receive malaria treatment at the community level where the need is greatest to save lives.
 

Malaria Consortium will apply its unparalleled depth of technical expertise and practical experience to train community health workers, health personnel in public health and NGO facilities, to appropriately diagnose and treat malaria and pneumonia. Malaria Consortium will also supply pre-packaged anti-malarial drugs and antibiotics to communities, ensuring that the best drugs are available free and close to home.
 

The intervention will also involve the use of rapid diagnostic tests for malaria to ensure only confirmed cases receive the anti-malarial drugs and training of community health workers to diagnose pneumonia and treat positive cases with antibiotics. This capacity to diagnose the illness before giving treatment will result in increased quality of care of fever and reduced mortality in children under five years.
 

Sunil Mehra, Executive Director of Malaria Consortium, said “Pneumonia and malaria are the major killers of children, who often die trying to reach distant healthcare facilities in Africa. The provision of care at the community level is a important strategy that will save lives and should guide global policy. Programmes such as this one are amongst the most effective public health investments and Malaria Consortium welcomes CIDA’s support for such an innovative initiative.”
 

This multi-country programme aims to reach almost 2 million children under 5 years over the course of the programme and to significantly reduce mortality in this group through improved management of fever. The programme will cover up to 4 countries in east and southern Africa and will run for up to December 2012.

Malaria Consortium is the world’s leading not-for-profit dedicated to the control of malaria and applies its depth of technical expertise and practical experience to develop smarter solutions that improve and save lives. Through innovation, Malaria Consortium increases the impact of malaria and disease control programmes so that they benefit all communities, including delivery in the most challenging environments. Malaria Consortium has pioneered best practices and approaches, setting the standards for delivery and access.  Malaria Consortium is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with over 95% of its staff based in malaria-endemic countries supporting Ministries of Health and partners in over twenty countries every year.  For more information, please visit www.malariaconsortium.org.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is Canada’s lead agency for development assistance. It has a mandate to support sustainable development in developing countries in order to reduce poverty and to contribute to a more secure, equitable, and prosperous world.