Global action plan vs malaria launched

A new malaria elimination plan was unveiled simultaneously across the globe last week to end the mosquito-borne disease by 2015, saving the lives of some 4.2 million people.

The Philippines hosted the launch of the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) for the Asia-Pacific in a ceremony led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Department of Health (DOH).

Dr. Raman Velayudhan, a malaria scientist at WHO-Philippines, said the GMAP was designed to “scale up” anti-malaria efforts around the world to significantly reduce cases and deaths.

GMAP was developed through the framework of Roll Back Malaria partnership by 250 experts and 65 international institutions. There are 109 “malarious” countries, including the Philippines.

Velayudhan said the GMAP is aimed at reducing the number of malaria cases by 50 percent in 2010 and by 75 percent in 2015.

But he underscored the need for the government and private sector to invest in anti-malaria programs, as some $6 billion to $7 billion would have to be spent to combat the disease in the next five years alone.

Dr. Yolanda Oliveros, director of the DOH’s National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said there used to be 89 malaria-endemic provinces in the Philippines but 22 of them have succeeded in eliminating the disease.

The seven provinces under Category A — or those with more than 1,000 cases a year — are Apayao, Cagayan, Isabela, Agusan del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

In 2006, Oliveros said the country registered a total of 35,405 cases with 122 deaths and this was 24 percent lower than those in 2005.

She said the number of cases rose by 2.4 percent because of the outbreak of malaria in Subic but “overall, we are still on track in our goal” to eliminate malaria.

Oliveros said the DOH’s budget for the Malaria Control Program increased from P32 million in 2007 to P63 million in 2008, bolstering anti-malaria efforts. The department is proposing a budget of P170 million for 2009.

She said the budget would be used to strengthen early diagnostic system, implement vector control, conduct disease surveillance, train health workers, and distribute insecticide-treated mosquito nets in endemic provinces.