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'Net flashes: News from Zambia and beyond |
Preliminary evidence of impact from scale-up of new malaria
tools. A new report from the WHO Global Malaria Program shows that widespread use of
the newest malaria interventions is already having a significant impact. Mortality from malaria has decreased by more than half in Rwanda and
Ethiopia, and by one-third in Zambia, since long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets (LLINs) and artemisinin combination therapies became available on
a large scale. MACEPA has contributed to Zambia’s LLIN distribution efforts and welcomes this preliminary evidence of their impact. Read the report.
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Photo: PATH (Hana Bilak)
Trainees learn to use personal digital assistants to gather data for Ethiopia's
malaria indicator survey. |
Ethiopia completes malaria indicator survey. On January 1, 2008, Ethiopia's Ministry of Health, in partnership with its Central Statistics Agency, WHO, UNICEF,
MACEPA, The Carter Center, the US President's Malaria Initiative, and others, completed its first national-scale malaria indicator survey (MIS) using
tools and methods developed by the RBM Partnership's Monitoring and Evaluation
Reference Group and tested in Zambia's 2006 MIS. Results will provide information on the national malaria burden and intervention coverage, and
will allow Ethiopia to measure coverage of key malaria interventions including ownership and use of insecticide-treated nets and indoor
residual spraying. Read more below in our Feature focus.
Global Fund announces Round
7 malaria grants. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria approved 28 new malaria grants in its seventh round of funding, which will contribute US$471 million to malaria control
programs over the next two years. MACEPA provided technical support for preparation of Round 7 funding applications to several countries including
Zambia, which secured funding of US$37 million over five years for its malaria control program. Sixty-two percent of the malaria applications were
approved, the highest success rate ever. Read more about the Round 7 grants.
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Zambia partners’ voices: Improving net usage rates through interpersonal communications
Richard Harrison,
deputy country director, Society for Family Health |
| The Society
for Family Health (SFH), the local affiliate for Population Services International in Zambia, has long been working to help Zambians protect
themselves from malaria. We are pleased to be an implementing partner—with the National Malaria Control Centre, Tulane University, and
MACEPA—on a new study of the impact of community-level interpersonal communications on insecticide-treated mosquito net (ITN) usage rates.
Results from Zambia’s 2006 malaria indicator survey showed a considerable disparity between household ownership of ITNs and
consistent, proper use of ITNs.
Mass distribution of free ITNs in Zambia, in combination with SFH’s focused “Malaria in Pregnancy” ITN
delivery program through antenatal clinics nationwide, has led to remarkable progress in tackling malaria. But impact on malaria death and illness
will be achieved only if people hang their nets properly and the most vulnerable—young children and pregnant women—sleep under them
every night.
In Luangwa District, community health workers will educate villagers about how malaria is transmitted, the protection offered
by sleeping under an ITN, and why young children and pregnant women should be given first priority to sleep under the nets. They will visit homes,
providing this information directly to heads of households and helping them to properly hang and repair nets if needed. In addition, public
performances in villages will offer group-learning opportunities to educate people about malaria prevention.
To date there has been little empirical evidence of the impact of an interpersonal communication intervention on ITN usage in
the context of a large-scale ITN distribution program. This study will address that research gap while determining costs associated with increasing
ITN use and identifying household, community, and policy factors that help or hinder ITN use among children. In the future, the findings from this
study will help form the backbone of interpersonal communication programs focusing on increasing net use in all 72 districts in Zambia, and
inform similar programs in other countries. |
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MACEPA in Zambia: Country director’s
perspectives
Dr. Abdi
Mohamed |
| Zambia continues to make excellent progress in the fight against malaria. In 2007, Zambia achieved its
goal of spraying households with insecticides in 15 provinces prior to the onset of the rainy season, and more than 3 million long-lasting
insecticidal nets were distributed nationwide. The results of Zambia’s second malaria indicator survey, to begin this April, will
illuminate the impact of these achievements. Many expect the survey to show that coverage has reached the target of 80% nationwide.
Zambia has also continued to attract attention for its strong leadership in malaria control at the global level, spearheaded by
Minister of Health Dr. Brian Chituwo. High-level delegations from the Government of Zambia presented the National Malaria Control Programme’s
achievements to global business leaders, members of the United States Congress, and the scientific community. A highlight was the Malaria
Forum convened by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in October, where Zambia was one of four countries participating in a cross-disciplinary
discussion of the issues most critical to the malaria community. Presentations by program's staff a few weeks later at the annual meeting of the
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene showed that Zambia’s goals for malaria control are being realized.
New partners, drawn by the program’s success, will further solidify Zambia’s efforts; the US President’s
Malaria Initiative is beginning its work here this year, supporting scale-up of core malaria interventions. And the approval of Round 7 funds from
the Global Fund will ensure continuing funding at this critical time for the national program scale-up effort. |
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Vistas: Malaria Forum
spurs community dialogue
David
Brandling-Bennett, senior program officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
Photo: Courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation
David Brandling-Bennett. |
In October 2007, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hosted a Malaria
Forum in Seattle, bringing together over 300 grantees, partners, scientists, advocates, and leaders to review progress in malaria control, share
challenges and successes, and think creatively about how to solve the malaria problem. Through panel discussions and breakout sessions, broad
agreement emerged that the malaria community’s ambitions have increased in recent years as they see the early success of their efforts; that
consensus, political will, and phased planning are essential to continuing progress; and that new tools, approaches, and capacities will be needed if
the ultimate goal is more than just control.
Bill and Melinda Gates gave keynote addresses building on these themes and boldly stating their vision for the global fight
against malaria—eradication. Melinda Gates urged that “Any goal short of eradicating malaria is accepting malaria; it’s
making peace with malaria . . . That’s just unacceptable.”
In his address, Bill Gates stated that “We should declare the goal of eradicating malaria because we can
eradicate malaria. Today, I want to make the case that we have a real chance to build the partnerships, generate the political will, and develop the
scientific breakthroughs we need to end this disease.”
Dr. Tachi Yamada, the foundation’s President of Global Health, ended the forum with a call for participants to commit to
a common vision, to combine their intellect and resources, and to become an enterprise to defeat malaria.
The Malaria Forum has had a galvanizing effect on the global malaria community. Before the Forum, the “e” word
was mentioned only in whispers; now, whether and how we can achieve eradication is enthusiastically discussed, and many groups and institutions are
considering what their roles should be. Certainly there are doubters, and their valid concerns must be addressed. It will take time to establish the
enterprise for eradication, but it is clear that scaling up and sustaining high coverage with our current tools—what MACEPA has been assisting
partner countries to accomplish—is an essential step as we collectively embark on this audacious but inevitable
journey. |
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MACEPA in Africa: Learning Community director's
perspectives
Judith Robb-McCord
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The MACEPA Learning
Community is facilitating learning among countries in today’s rapidly changing landscape of malaria control. We are bringing countries
together to learn from each other and working with them to incorporate new tools, methods, and knowledge into their malaria control programs, and we
are already off to a running start with this approach.
In 2007 MACEPA, through the RBM Harmonization Working Group, implemented multi-country workshops to help national malaria control programs develop robust Round
7 proposals to the Global Fund—resulting in an overall proposal success rate double that of the previous year. This year the Learning Community
is working with RBM to dive even deeper into the proposal development process for Round 8 by conducting comprehensive needs assessments in several
countries, then working with those countries to develop proposals addressing identified needs. Findings from these assessments will also inform the
development of a Global Business Plan for malaria.
The Learning Community is applying principles of facilitated learning to assist countries with planning and
implementing the malaria indicator survey (MIS), the best tool for gathering critical data on malaria burden and intervention coverage. MACEPA has
provided technical expertise to Zambia for its 2006 MIS and for its second MIS, which will be implemented in the coming weeks. We recently partnered
with Ethiopia and Zimbabwe to adapt Zambia’s tools and methods for their national MIS.
In April the Learning Community will host a workshop, with the RBM Monitoring and Evaluation Reference
Group, where countries planning to conduct an MIS will learn from technical experts and from countries that have recently completed the MIS.
Participating countries will learn from the experience of others and receive training on state-of-the-art tools and methods. After the workshop, the
Learning Community will work with participating countries to plan, budget for, and implement their own surveys. A similar multi-country workshop will
take place later this year on using
geographic information systems for mapping and planning of indoor residual spraying activities. This combination of facilitated,
multi-country learning paired with ongoing in-country assistance is what makes the Learning Community unique. |
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MACEPA's partnership with Ethiopia
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Photo: Courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
(Karie Hamilton)
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Minister of Health of Ethiopia,
at the Malaria Forum in October 2007. |
Ethiopia is scaling up its malaria control efforts through an integrated approach to health services delivery. MACEPA’s
collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health on its first malaria
indicator survey (MIS) marks the beginning of Ethiopia’s membership in the MACEPA Learning Community.
Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is also the chair of the RBM Partnership Board and a
vocal champion for malaria control scale-up. The national malaria control program has made remarkable progress with his support and with a strong
partnership including the Global Fund, the US President’s Malaria Initiative, the World Bank Booster Program, the World Health Organization,
the Carter Center, and UNICEF. With support from these and other partners, Ethiopia recently completed a two-year effort to distribute 20 million
long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs)—enough to meet the national goal of providing at least two LLINs to all at-risk
households.
MACEPA worked with the national team and its partners to plan and design the MIS using tools and methods developed by the RBM
Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group and tested in Zambia. MACEPA also provided training in MIS methods, procured the handheld computers that
were used to gather data, and is now helping to analyze and report the survey data. A final report on the survey will be available in April. The
survey will measure the coverage of key malaria interventions and inform future national malaria control planning.
Learn more about Ethiopia and its role
in the Learning Community. |
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To learn about and apply for jobs with MACEPA and other PATH programs, please visit PATH's
career website. |
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