USAID Impact Photo Credit: Nancy Leahy/USAID

Tag archives for Malaria

USAID and Merck Put Skin in the Health Finance Game

Posted by  on Monday, May 20th 2013     
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah. Photo by: Center for Strategic and International Studies / CC BY-NC-SA

USAID and Merck have joined other donors and companies in a massive ramp-up of an existing public health financing program built to help countries that need health supplies get more bang for their buck. Read more >>

Read the rest of this entry »

Adding Vaccines to Intensify the Assault on Malaria

Posted by  on Thursday, May 9th 2013     
David Kaslow, MD serves as Director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. Photo credit: David Kaslow

The international community has made phenomenal progress against malaria, but the gains are fragile. Read more >>

Read the rest of this entry »

Catching Mosquitoes, Not Fish: Returning Bed Nets to their Proper Use in the DRC

Posted by  on Monday, May 6th 2013     
It is 1 p.m. in the village of Kavimvira. The sun is high over Lake Tanganyika, at the foot of the Mitumba Mountain, in scenic South Kivu. Frank Baraka has packed the bounty of the morning fishing trip and folded his nets, when his cell phone chimes to signal an incoming text message: “Sleep every night under an Insecticide-Treated Net (ITN), to protect your family from malaria,” he reads out loud, amused, to his fishing companion. “This is exactly the message my wife has been pounding at home lately,” Roger Amisi responds. “She says that she heard it at the ETL (Education-Through-Listening) meeting, with Nathalie, you know, the primary school teacher.” Delaying his lunch, Frank hurries to Nathalie Niéla’s compound to find out about the messages. “Malaria kills children in our community,” Nathalie says. “Sleep under a net every night, to live safe from malaria” she confirms. This is the call to action of the Malaria 3+1 Campaign implemented by USAID’s Democratic Republic of Congo-Integrated Health Project (DRC-IHP), in partnership with C-Change. An estimated 140,949 Congolese from 194 villages were exposed to campaign messages on malaria awareness and prevention. In a country where only five percent of pregnant women receive proper preventive malaria therapy, and malaria accounts for nearly 40 percent of child deaths, prevention is a critical priority. Nathalie is one of 37 women ETL facilitators recently trained in the DRC-IHP’s field office of Uvira. “Thanks to ETL, our husbands no longer use the nets to fish or to protect vegetable gardens,” she affirms proudly. “Nets now serve their purpose of protecting children and pregnant women from mosquito bites.” ETL is one pillar of IHP’s Tuendeni-Kumpala Behavior Change Communication strategy which empowers communities to adopt health-seeking behaviors. Tuendeni-Kumpala which means “moving forward” in Swahili and Tshiluba (two local languages), is an integrated strategy in which ETL facilitators work in synergy with other innovative communication approaches such as mobile technology, to increase the reach and enhance the behavioral impact of project interventions such as malaria prevention and use of reproductive health services. Through this partnership between USAID, DRC-IHP and C-Change, a total of 64,584 ITNs were distributed across Bukavu, Kolwezi, Uvira, and Kamina, supporting the effort to boost the number of people using insecticide-treated nets. Campaign results from two health zones point to the value of ETL, in terms of actual ITN use. After four months, 89 percent of the 9,471 households exposed to campaign activities in Uvira slept every night under an ITN. By contrast, 82 percent of the 12,965 households involved in Kamina (Katanga province) reported adoption of the preventive behavior. When the campaign was launched in June 2012, ETL was not yet rolled out in Kamina. For the project’s communication team, the difference illustrates the powerful effect of ETL. “ETL truly shows results here,” said Donat Ngoyi, DRC-IHP Communication Expert in Uvira. “This approach will, no doubt, help us meet our malaria prevention and treatment goals.” The DRC-Integrated Health Project (DRC-IHP) — a five-year USAID cooperative agreement led by Management Sciences for Health in partnership with the International Rescue Committee, and Overseas Strategic Consulting, Ltd — is strengthening the leadership and governance capacity of people working in the health sector to improve the access, availability, and quality of services within 80 target health zones. Photo Credit: USAID Global health

In the DRC, where only five percent of pregnant women receive proper preventive malaria therapy, and malaria accounts for nearly 40 percent of child deaths, prevention is a critical priority. Read more >>

Read the rest of this entry »

Health and Economic Returns on Science and Innovation Investments for Global Health

Posted by  on Monday, May 6th 2013     
Doctor prepares malaria treatment. Photo credit: IMAD

Much work is to be done. Global diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis take eight lives per minute. Read more >>

Read the rest of this entry »

Use of Technology in Malaria Prevention and Control Activities

Posted by  on Friday, May 3rd 2013     
Malaria surveillance officer interviewing woman from malaria positive household in Zanzibar, June 2012. Photo credit: Mike McKay, RTI

mHealth applications are helping Zanzibar to identify and treat many otherwise undiagnosed malaria cases, identifying hot spots and transmission patterns, and responding rapidly to new outbreaks. Read more >>

Read the rest of this entry »

Religious Leaders “Noisy About Malaria” in Mozambique

Posted by  on Thursday, April 25th 2013     

Each year, World Malaria Day (April 25) commemorates the global fight toward zero malaria deaths and mobilizes action to combat malaria. This year’s theme is “Invest in the Future: Defeat Malaria.” Anglican Bishop Dinis Sengulane’s message isn’t exactly what one might expect from a typical religious leader. Then again, Bishop Sengulane, who has presided over Mozambique’s Lebombo Diocese since 1976, is not a typical leader, religious [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

Malaria is a Marathon, Not a 50-yard Dash

Posted by  on Wednesday, April 24th 2013     
Mass distribution of mosquito nets is a key tactic for achieving universal mosquito net coverage. Photo credit: USAID

When it comes to the wily mosquito, every day has to be World Malaria Day. Read more >>

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo of the Week: Invest in the Future: Defeat Malaria

Posted by  on Tuesday, April 23rd 2013     
World Malaria Day

Each year, World Malaria Day (April 25) commemorates the global fight toward zero malaria deaths and mobilizes action to combat malaria. Read more >>

Read the rest of this entry »

WWE Divas Help Refugees in Rwanda Fight Malaria

Posted by  on Thursday, March 28th 2013     
WWE Divas Alicia Fox and Natalya Fox during their visit to Rwanda. They helped distribute bed nets to mothers and families, and visited health clinics and youth centers at the camps. Photo credit: Craig Ambrosio, WWE

Recently, WWE Divas Alicia and Natalya Fox, along with the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign, visited Rwanda to meet mothers and children fighting malaria. Read more >>

Read the rest of this entry »

Germany’s Renewed Support: Another Leap Forward for the Global Fund

Posted by  on Wednesday, January 30th 2013     
Alongside the Global Fund’s new Executive Director Mark Dybul and Bill Gates, German Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel announces Germany’s EUR 1 billion commitment to the Global Fund at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. Photo credit: The Global Fund

USAID, through PEPFAR, and alongside many donor countries such as Germany, has been a strong supporter of the Global Fund to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Read more >>

Read the rest of this entry »

« Older Entries