Your Health
Combating Malaria
Posted: 10/18/2011
Officials focused malaria-combating efforts in the Amazon Basin because countries there have a disproportionate share of the disease burden: 89 percent in 2008. (NAPSI)—Seven countries have turned the tide in the malaria epidemic. International health practitioners, policymakers and donors are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Amazon Malaria Initiative (AMI) funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that helped make it happen.
In 2008, according to the Pan American Health Organization, there were 560,221 cases of malaria in the Americas, 30 percent less than the number reported in 2007. Mortality from malaria decreased 52 percent in 2008.
Health ministers in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname and technical partners are working through the Amazon Network for the Surveillance of Antimalarial Drug Resistance (Red Amazónica para la Vigilancia de la Resistencia a los Antimaláricos, or RAVREDA) and AMI to more effectively contain and eliminate malaria from the region.
In addition to celebrating their success and discussing key lessons learned, AMI and RAVREDA are seeking new partners. Any group that would like to be part of this work can go to www.usaidami.org. |
