Expertise France is taking action for the fight against malaria

The fight against malaria is one of the greatest public health successes of the 21st century. Since the Global Fund was set up in 2002, malaria mortality has fallen by 60%, representing millions of lives saved. But while progress had gathered pace over the last ten years, for the second consecutive year, the latest malaria report by the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that the number of new people affected has reached a plateau.

Revive the need to invest in the fight

In November 2018, WHO released its latest annual World Malaria Report: while progress had gathered pace over the last ten years and the number of people contracting the disease had fallen steadily, for the second consecutive year, this report highlighted the fact that the number of people affected by malaria had reached a plateau. WHO also warned about the increase in the number of cases of malaria in the 10 most affected African countries. In 2017, some 70% of cases of malaria (151 million) and deaths (274,000) occurred in 11 countries: 10 in Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania) plus India.

While there are tools to prevent and treat the disease, such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets and antimalarial drugs, the uptake of these interventions has made very little progress since 2015 and the coverage of these tools for the most vulnerable populations is today insufficient. Access to preventive treatments for pregnant women and children is too low, and the burden of anaemia among these children is excessively high. There is also a threat to the future effectiveness of these tools with the increase in resistance to insecticides and antimalarial drugs and, in particular, the presence of a multidrug resistance in the Greater Mekong subregion.

Engage operational research

In addition to the programmes supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the 5% Initiative finances operational research projects, with its scientific and civil society partners, in particular in West Africa and Southeast Asia. The objective is to monitor the effectiveness of existing tools and test innovative interventions. The results also serve to support financing requests from countries and back them up with scientific facts.

For example, Expertise France, via the 5% Initiative, is financing the REACT project in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. The objective of this study, which was conducted by IRD in partnership with the Pierre Richet Institute in Bouaké and IRSS in Bobo-Dioulasso from April 2016 to March 2019, is to test the impact that four new tools, which are complementary to insecticide-treated mosquito nets, have on malaria transmission.

Take action together at regional level

Through its two channels of action, the 5% Initiative works to strengthen public actors in the fight against malaria, in particular by facilitating their access to Global Fund financing, while promoting operational research. In West Africa and Southeast Asia, the projects financed by the 5% Initiative thereby work to monitor the effectiveness of existing control tools and test innovative control interventions and strategies in order to stem the increase in resistance. Through the 5% Initiative alone, France has earmarked over EUR 10m for the eradication of one of the deadliest diseases in the world.

As we approach World Malaria Day, Éric Fleutelot, the new Technical Director of Expertise France’s Major Pandemics Unit, shares some lessons from advances in the fight against malaria in the Greater Mekong.

For further reading: Malaria: Remaining vigilant together

Working alongside the Global Fund to achieve the objective of eliminating malaria by 2030, since 2011, Expertise France has conducted 34 expert missions via the 5% Initiative, mainly for public actors (national coordination bodies, national malaria control programmes, ministries of health) in 17 different countries, and has financed 9 long-term projects, 8 of which are led by research institutes.