YAOUNDE, Cameroon, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- GlaxoSmithKline’s African Malaria Partnership today announced it will award a grant of 900,000 pounds sterling (US$1.5M) to the Malaria Consortium, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to improving malaria control. The three-year grant, announced on the eve of the 5th Roll Back Malaria Global Partners’ Forum in Cameroon, will support “Mobilising for Malaria,” a new advocacy programme that aims to raise awareness of malaria in Europe and throughout Africa to bring greater resources to bear against the disease.
“For too long the global community has failed to invest sufficient resources in fighting malaria, leaving it near the bottom of the world’s health agenda,” said Dr. J.P. Garnier, Chief Executive Officer of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). “This new advocacy initiative will shine a spotlight on the immense damage caused by malaria. The goal is to attract increased donor support for existing tools like mosquito nets and malaria treatments and ensure that they reach those people at greatest risk.”
Malaria is the world’s invisible pandemic. A 2004 Gallup poll found that only 2 percent of the world’s population considers malaria an important health threat. Yet unbeknownst to many, malaria kills up to 3 million people a year and is the world’s leading cause of childhood mortality, according to the 20th Report of the WHO Expert Committee on Malaria. About 90 percent of acute malaria infections occur in Africa, and the WHO reports that malaria costs the continent more than US$12 billion each year in healthcare expenditures and lost productivity, a sum that is roughly equivalent to all the foreign aid that flows into Africa each year.
Learning from the success of advocacy programmes that brought HIV/AIDS to the world’s attention, this malaria advocacy initiative will similarly engage politicians, the media and the general public in order to tackle this tragedy. In Europe, the programme will focus on the United Kingdom, France and Belgium -- the countries with the strongest ties to Africa. In Africa, the focus will be on Ethiopia, Cameroon, and other countries in Eastern, Western, and Central Africa.
“A groundswell of public support is necessary in order to achieve sustained funding and political commitment for malaria control,” said Sunil Mehra, Executive Director of the Malaria Consortium. “This support from GSK is essential to help us build the lasting malaria advocacy network that will be necessary to win the long fight against this persistent disease.”
“This new advocacy programme is an investment in Africa’s future,” said Dr. Richard South, Director of GSK’s African Malaria Partnership. “We know that African communities are ready to adopt new tools such as insecticide- treated mosquito nets and home-based treatment when they are made available. But the world needs to dramatically expand its support for these interventions to make them a reality for every African family that is affected by this disease.”
“Expanded advocacy is essential to turn the tide on malaria,” said Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Secretary of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. “GSK and the Malaria Consortium have taken an important step today that promises to raise the global profile of this disease and help ensure that the world dedicates more resources to defeating malaria.”
“Increased Advocacy is essential to ensure that we have the resources we need and are able to apply them effectively to bring malaria under control,” said Hon. Urbain Olanguena Awono, Minister of Public Health of the Republic of Cameroon. “Both the public and private sectors have important roles to play in supporting this effort, and we welcome today’s announcement that GlaxoSmithKline will take a leading role to support malaria advocacy.”
GSK established its African Malaria Partnership in 2001. It has worked with a number of non-profit organisations in eight African countries, investing US$1.5 million to support behaviour change programmes to improve prevention and treatment of malaria. The African Malaria Partnership is part of GSK’s global charitable programme focusing on improving health and education in under-served communities around the world.
About the Malaria Consortium
The Malaria Consortium is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the control of malaria, especially among the poorest and most vulnerable people in Africa and Asia. The Malaria Consortium works through regional centres of expertise based in Uganda and Ghana and through offices in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sudan and Zambia. More information is available at http://www.malariaconsortium.org.
About GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline -- one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies -- is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer More information is available at http://www.gsk.com.
About Roll Back Malaria
The Roll Back Malaria group supports this new programme and recognises the value of advocacy in increasing the attention and resources devoted to malaria so that they are commensurate with the impact the disease has on the people of Africa. The stated goal of the RBM partners is to halve malaria morbidity and mortality by 2010, working toward the Millennium Development Goals’ due date of 2015. In fact, an external evaluation of RBM’s phase I strongly recommended that phase II include a focus on forging stronger partnerships and fostering action at the country level. For more information: http://www.rbm.who.int
GlaxoSmithKline; Malaria Consortium
CONTACT: Jonathan Baum, +1-646-284-1485, jbaum@ghstrat.com, or Alice Hunt,+44-20-8047-5514, alice.m.hunt@gsk.com, both of GlaxoSmithKline; or SunilMehra of Malaria Consortium, +44-20-7549-0210,s.mehra@malariaconsortium.org
