Global Health: Malaria Funding

The Global Need

FY13 Committee Approved Funding Senate: $670 million House: $650 million

Every year, 3.3 billion people are at risk of contracting malaria, leading to approximately 216 million malaria cases and an estimated 655,000 deaths. Thanks in part to President George W. Bushs leadership and the creation of the Presidential Malaria Initiative in 2005, which currently operates in 19 focus countries, international funding to combat malaria has continued to rise. However, funding still falls short of the $5 billion per year needed from 2010 to 2015 to reach malaria control targets.1 Additionally, robust funding for malaria research and development is necessary to sustain the remarkable gains made against the disease in the last decade. Significance of Funding Levels The extra $20 million dollars approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee for FY13 could provide: Bed nets for over 5 million people; Artemisnin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) treatment for more than 14 million people; or Rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) for 33 million people. Cost of Care $4.00 = Long-lasting insecticidal bed net that lasts three years $1.40 = ACT course for an adult $0.60 = Rapid diagnostic testing for children and adults2

Importance of Funding
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that half of the worlds population is at risk of malaria infection. Malaria is prevalent in 106 countries, referred to as malaria-endemic countries. Malaria imposes significant costs to both individuals and governments. Direct costs such as illness, treatment, or premature death have been estimated to be at least $12 billion per year. Indirect costs, like loss of economic growth, are many times more than that.3

The Impact of Funding - Success is Possible

USAID works closely with national governments to build their capacity to prevent and treat malaria. With the help of US and global funding efforts, significant gains in combating malaria have been made, including: 43 countries have reported a reduction in malaria cases of more than 50 percent; Estimated new cases of malaria have decreased by 17 percent globally; Mortality in children under five has fallen dramatically across Sub-Saharan Africa due to a scale-up of malaria control efforts;4 and The overall annual malaria death toll has declined from 985,000 to 655,000 people, a 26 percent reduction in global malaria mortality.5 By continuing these smart investments, the U.S. can continue to lead the international community in ending malaria deaths globally.
Kendall, Alexandra. (June 2012). Congressional Research Services: U.S Response to the Global Threat of Malaria. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41644.pdf. 2 World Health Organization. (2011). World Malaria Report 2011: Financing Malaria Control. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/Rrtlg1 3 Center for Disease and Control Prevention. (2010). Impact of Malaria. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/malaria_worldwide/impact.html. 4 The Presidents Malaria Initiative: Sixth Annual Report to Congress (April 2012). Page 3. As retrieved from: http://1.usa.gov/RvHY3Q 5 The Global Fund. (2012). Fighting Malaria: The Global Malaria Epidemic. Retrieved from http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/about/diseases/malaria/.
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October 31, 2012