The RBM Partnership to End Malaria is leading the global malaria community in celebrating the milestone of 2 billion insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) delivered worldwide since 2004. The development and scale up of these nets are responsible for 68% of the malaria cases prevented in Africa since 2000, contributing to global efforts that saved more than 7 million lives and prevented more than 1 billion malaria cases.
A new video highlights the global collaboration it took to boost funding, pioneer, produce, and deliver the insecticide-treated mosquito nets to millions of families around the world living at risk of malaria, a preventable disease that kills a child every 2 minutes. The film follows the journey of one of the nets passed among representatives from the global malaria community including advocates, a scientist, global leaders and malaria-endemic country health workers to reach a family in Nampula, Mozambique – one of 5 countries with the highest burden of malaria. It also features a classroom of young women in Nyanza Province, Kenya, including Clementina Akinyi. Ms Akinyi, now in her last year of high school, grew up sleeping under insecticide-treated nets, and was photographed as a young child under a mosquito net – an image which became iconic for the fight against malaria.
According to the latest World Malaria Report, between 2010 and 2018, the number of pregnant women and children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa who slept under an insecticide-treated net more than doubled, up from 26% to 61%. Key initiatives driving this progress include The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), which purchased and worked with malaria-endemic countries and partners to distribute 1.13 billion and 400 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets, respectively. Many other governments, notably the UK, and organisations, including UNICEF, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the World Bank, the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets initiative and Against Malaria Foundation, also made significant contributions to the 2 billion net milestone.
While current evidence suggests that nets treated with pyrethroid insecticides continue to be effective against the mosquito, resistance to pyrethroids – the only insecticide class currently used in ITNs – is widespread and highest in the WHO African Region. To combat insecticide resistance, partners are developing, testing and scaling up nets with new insecticide combinations and harnessing data to better target where to distribute current and new nets. At IVCC, we are leading the implementation of the New Nets Project which began in 2019 in Burkina Faso and will expand in 2020 to Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria and Rwanda. The pilot project is funded by Unitaid and the Global Fund. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and U.S. Agency for International Development are providing supplementary funding. And, in October 2019, MedAccess and the foundation announced an agreement with a mosquito net manufacturer to accelerate the availability of 35 million new nets. Ultimately the project and its partners seek to not only establish the necessary evidence base needed to support an appropriate policy recommendation, but to also make the new nets a sustainable choice for countries looking for the best value for money in controlling malaria.
“The milestone of delivering 2 billion life-saving nets is a hallmark example of effective global partnership and sustained commitment over the past two decades. As we enter a new decade, we must now step up action to meet the ambitious global targets of further reducing malaria deaths and cases significantly by 2030. Political commitment and engagement from all levels of society will be crucial to ensure we reach those most vulnerable – pregnant women and children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa – who still suffer from malaria with life-saving mosquito nets. Equally, we need to continue investing in developing, testing and scaling up nets with new insecticides and active ingredients to stay ahead of the evolving mosquito.”
Dr Abdourahmane Diallo
CEO, RBM Partnership to End Malaria
Notes to Editors
To arrange an interview with a representative for an organisation referenced in this press release, please contact the RBM Partnership press office at Grayling on RBMPartnership@grayling.com or call +44 (0)20 3861 3747.
This video marking the announcement is available for media outlets to use and share, with credit to the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. Pre-recorded interviews with the below spokespeople and case studies are also available on request.
- Dr Abdourahmane Diallo, CEO, RBM Partnership to End Malaria*
- Marijke Wijnroks, Chief of Staff, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria*
- Kajal Patel, global advocate for malaria and malaria survivor*
- Dr Ellie Sherrard-Smith, Research Associate, Imperial College London*
- Clementina Akinyi, anti-malaria mosquito net champion
*Also available for further comment
To support this major milestone for global health and to engage in the celebration online, social media users can use #EndMalaria and #zeromalariastartswithme.
About the RBM Partnership to End Malaria
The RBM Partnership to End Malaria is the largest global platform for coordinated action against malaria. Originally established as Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership in 1998, it mobilises for action and resources and forges consensus among partners. The Partnership is comprised of more than 500 partners, including malaria endemic countries, their bilateral and multilateral development partners, the private sector, nongovernmental and community-based organisations, foundations, and research and academic institutions. www.endmalaria.org
About IVCC
IVCC is the only Product Development Partnership (PDP) working in vector control. IVCC was established in 2005, through a $50million grant to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and is a registered charity in the UK. We work with stakeholders to facilitate the development of novel and improved public health insecticides and formulations to combat the rapidly growing problem of insecticide resistance. We bring together partners from industry, the public sector and academia to create new solutions to prevent disease transmission. By focusing resources and targeting practical scientific solutions we accelerate the process from innovation to impact.
IVCC’s Annual Report 2018-2019 Available Now 9th December 2019The IVCC Annual Report 2018-2019 has been published. The report showcases IVCC’s work to facilitate innovative approaches to preventing vector-borne diseases and tackle the growing threat of insecticide resistance. With activities across the globe and spanning research and development and market access, we are accelerating the process from innovation to impact. The report is a reminder of the importance of collaborative working and the progress laid out in it is testament, too, to the commitment of our partners from industry, academia, the public sector and advocacy. We are grateful for the support of all of our funders, who make life-saving vector control possible.
“As I look at the year ahead, I believe we are set fair to maintain IVCC’s momentum towards accomplishing the stretching goals we have set ourselves.”
The Right Honourable Sir Stephen O’Brien KBE
Chair, Board of Trustees, IVCC
For more information or to request a physical copy please provide your full name and postal address to Chris Larkin on christopher.larkin@ivcc.com.
IVCC Launches Vector Control Landscape Studies for the Indo-Pacific Region 13th November 20197 November 2019, Hanoi, Vietnam.
IVCC has published the results of three landscape studies it commissioned as part of its 5-year $18.75 million grant from the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security through Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
The reports, which will provide the platform for a series of bespoke product intervention strategies, aim to address the growing threat of vector-borne diseases in the region by providing a comprehensive analysis of the technical, regulatory and market access environment for vector control in the region.
The studies found that while there is a wide range of malaria and other disease transmission ecologies – stretching from South Asia through to the Pacific Islands – several common themes emerged including:
- Outdoor transmission is a key challenge necessitating innovation and access to vector control tools for outdoor protection.
- Despite a lack of insecticide resistance data in many parts of the region, insecticide resistance among dominant Anopheles vectors is widespread in South Asia, and there are indications that pyrethroid resistance is increasing in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), an area also confronting multi-drug-resistant parasites. Limited testing in PNG indicates that pyrethroid susceptibility remains high.
- Most national programmes rely almost exclusively on the mass distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs), apart from Pakistan and India, which implement wide-scale indoor residual spraying (IRS).
- Aedes-borne diseases are on the rise as Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus populations continue to proliferate with increasing occurrences of dengue outbreaks and often inadequate diagnostic capacity to detect chikungunya and Zika viruses.
- There are some countries with relatively strong Aedes control programmes, but most lack capacity, accessible and effective surveillance and control options.
Insecticide resistance among Aedes, both pyrethroid adulticides and temephos (organophosphate) larvicide, is very severe in some countries. - Capacity for emergency response and implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR) for health security varies significantly, with most countries lacking adequate tools and resources.
IVCC is uniquely positioned to address these challenges in collaboration with national programmes and research, implementation and industry partners. Potential solutions fit into IVCC’s integrated vector management (IVM) portfolio of work, because rather than a single product, it is likely to be an integrated package of tools and approaches that, driven by improved, high-quality data and implementation, can sustainably reduce mosquito-borne diseases in the region.
Robin Davies, Head of Australia’s Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, said: “Vector control interventions have proven to be highly effective in reducing malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses. Continued innovation in vector control, led by IVCC, will be critical to further driving down the burden of vector-borne disease across our region and globally.”
Nick Hamon, CEO of IVCC added; “IVCC has a wealth of experience and expertise in delivering impactful innovative vector control solutions across sub-Saharan Africa. By tapping into this knowledge and expertise we are well placed to transfer our knowledge and learning to deliver a toolbox of relevant vector control solutions fit for the Indo-Pacific region.”
Notes
The reports were launched during a workshop of regulators from across Asia-Pacific focused on best practices and challenges related to the registration and regulation of vector control products. The workshop was convened as part of the Vector Control Platform in Asia Pacific (VCAP), an initiative led by the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) and Unitaid to address policy barriers to vector control.
The technical landscape was undertaken by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Malaria
Elimination Initiative, the regulatory landscape by the consultant John Paul Vasanthan and the Market Access Landscape by FutureBridge.
Conducted between September 2018 and May 2019, the studies comprised of a desk review of 19 countries and in-depth consultations and interviews with governments and partners in the focus countries of Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Vietnam.
Fighting Insecticide Resistance in Ghana 25th May 2018Ghana shares their story using SumiShield® 50WG
Ministry officials highlighted the successes over the past few years and emphasized the challenges faced in the country, in particular, the growing threat insecticide resistance.
The timely availability and launch of SumiShield® 50WG in Ghana, now provides the country with an alternative insecticide for indoor residual spraying (IRS) in a region in Ghana where entomological monitoring flagged up resistance to all other available insecticides. It has a new mode of action, and was prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO) for indoor residual spraying in October 2017. The National Malaria Control Programme(link is external)(NMCP) in Ghana is now able to implement sub-national rotation in the country with 2, third generation insecticides SumiShield® 50WG and Actellic® 300CS.
Indoor residual spraying is one of several tools supporting the NMCP’s goal of reducing malaria morbidity and mortality by 75 percent in Ghana between 2012 and 2020. The two IRS implementation partners in Ghana working closely in partnership with the NMCP are AGAMal malaria control programme(link is external), supported by the Global Fund, and the President’s Malaria Initiative (link is external)(PMI) VectorLink(link is external) project.
Ghana has been a NgenIRS country partner since 2017, procuring 3GIRS insecticides at reduced prices as a result of participation in consolidated forecasting, followed by manufacturer discounts and a co-pay mechanism to reduce prices further. The NgenIRS project has enabled the country to expand its coverage compared to the 2016 campaign, with the inclusion of Karaga District.
During 2017, thirteen districts were sprayed by the AGAMal and seven by PMI VectorLink respectively, protecting an estimated 1.9 million people.
The Malaria Programme Manager, Dr. Kezia Malm, stated that malaria is still the number one cause of death in children under 5 in the country and the programme and partners are working tirelessly to reduce these numbers. The areas most affected by insecticide resistance is the Ashanti Region. Districts targeted for IRS in this region during 2018 would have been excluded due to resistance levels, if a new insecticide was not available at the time of spraying.
After the press briefing and a visit to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Institute, the press delegation went to Ashanti region where they were introduced to the AGAMal malaria control programme and the operational implementation of IRS using the new insecticide SumiShield® 50WG.
Village leaders, community members and spray operators were given the opportunity to directly tell their story to journalists.
Journalists talking to village leaders and community members in a village in the Ashanti region, Ghana.
Press event in Accra, from left, Samuel Asiedu (Project Director, AGAMAL), David McGuire (NgenIRS Project Director, IVCC) Atsuko Hirooka (Executive Officer, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.), HE Tsutomu Himeno (Ambassador, Japan), Tina Mensah (Deputy Minister of Health), Dr Gloria J Quansah Asare (Deputy Director General, Ghana Health Services), Alexandra Cameron (Technical Manager, Unitaid) and at the podium Dr. Keziah Malm (National Malaria Programme Manager).
Links to Unitaid’s Video & Photo Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QycIfcllEsk(link is external)
https://unitaid.eu/news-blog/inside-ghanas-mosquito-squad-a-photo-story/#en(link is external)
Links to related press releases, stories and articles
https://unitaid.eu/news-blog/new-boost-to-ghanas-malaria-control-programme/(link is external)
https://spark.adobe.com/page/AUlSyLWZj2pmE/(link is external)
https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/05/09/planeta_futuro/1525853136_438091.html(link is external)