Recent Approaches to fight Malaria, GFATM
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SENEGAL: Anti-malaria ACTs expected for rainy season once funds
approved
DAKAR, 16 March (IRIN) - Senegal plans to switch to more expen-
sive but more effective artemisinin-based anti-malaria drugs be-
fore the rainy season kicks off this year, with the help of
funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Ma-
laria, a senior health official said on Wednesday.
Moussa Thior, who heads the country's National Programme to
Fight Malaria (PNLP), told IRIN that the Global Fund had ap-
proved Senegal's request for US $33 million to fight malaria and
that the West African country was now waiting for the five-year
grant to be signed.
Earlier this month, Global Fund experts admonished Senegal for
the poor performance of its 2003 anti-malaria programme. The
project had been set to run for five years but funding was dis-
continued following a two-year progress report.
Thior, who took over the country's battle against malaria six
months ago, said the new project is a separate endeavour which
will learn from past shortcomings. "We will be evaluating pro-
gress constantly," he said.
Malaria, which causes a million deaths a year, 90 percent of
them in Africa, is on the rise largely due to the growing resis-
tance of plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly strain of the
disease, to conventional anti-malarial drugs such as chloroquine
or amodiaquine.
Under the project, the PNLP planned to make artemisinin-based
combination therapy (ACTs) available at around the same cost as
the current bitherapy treatment on offer in Senegal, a quinoline
compound plus an antifolate offered at health centres at 250 CFA
(50 US cents) per treatment.
Artemisinin is extracted from the root of a plant grown in China
and Vietnam, and anti-malarial treatments incorporating the
relatively new drug are proving more effective than many tradi-
tional drugs.
ACTs can be 10 times as expensive as traditional anti-malarial
drugs, but Thior said "the government has asked that anti-
malaria medicine be made accessible to all."
Senegal, where one out of three people seeking medical treatment
is suffering from malaria, has been using a combination of amo-
diaquine plus sulfadoxine-pyrimethanine to treat the mosquito-
borne disease.
Thior said 400,000 to 600,000 long-lasting impregnated bed nets
will also be provided each year at subsidised rates.
But he said there was no question of providing the nets, which
can cut malaria by half, free of charge despite high-profile ap-
peals here this week by Senegalese music legend Youssou N'Dour
for millions of free bed nets for Africa.
"I'm opposed to free bed nets, it would be a catastrophe," he
said.
Thior, a former district chief doctor involved in grassroots
campaigns in favour of public health, said giving away nets
would disrupt supply circuits and have a negative impact on the
importance of nets in fighting malaria among the people who need
them most.
"People must be asked to make at least a minimum contribution to
community health efforts," he said.