2 Billion Net Milestone Reached!
Our Friends at RBM Partnership to End Malaria announced on January 16 that 2 billion mosquito nets have been distributed. According to RBM since 2000 – 7 million lives have been saved and over 1 billion cases of Malaria have been prevented. This is a remarkable achievement, and a worthy moment to celebrate, but more work needs to be done.
“The global community is taking a moment to recognize this important milestone and partners’ role in achieving it. But the fight isn’t over. If we’re going to end malaria, we need to expand coverage of mosquito nets to reach those who are most vulnerable – the 39% of pregnant women and children under 5 living in sub-Saharan Africa who still don’t have access to a mosquito net and who are at greatest risk. We also need to stay ahead of the evolving mosquito by introducing innovative tools like next generation nets that are combatting insecticide resistance, using data to target where to distribute the mosquito nets where they’re most needed and increasing monitoring and management of insecticide resistance.”
Source: http://spark.adobe.com/page/OQ02KZmI0e9m0/
Malaria is a disease prone to fast resurgence if investments in malaria control are not sustained or reduced.
In 61 countries during the past century, especially in the late 1960s when malaria programs were scaled back due to lack of funding and political commitment, malaria resurged, increasing by 10-fold in many cases during a period of five years or less.
People lose partial immunity to malaria when not continually exposed, and so resurgence of malaria after years of control can be especially costly in causing widespread illness in newly susceptible populations.
The only way to prevent this from happening is an acceleration of the effort to completely eliminate malaria transmission in the 35 countries where it is most possible and then focus resources on achieving and sustaining malaria control in the remaining 56 countries.
The Global Fund and its Partners in 2018:
- Distributed 131 million nets
- Treated 110 million cases of malaria
- And 6.7 million households were covered by indoor residual spraying
source: http://data.theglobalfund.org/investments/home
