§ Lord Chanasked Her Majesty's Government:
What they are doing to improve the control of malaria and the treatment of infected children in Africa. [HL4192]
§ Baroness AmosDfID remains strongly committed to meeting the Millennium Development Goal to halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria by 2015, recognising the importance of malaria, not just in terms of disease burden, but also the potential it has to undermine economic growth and human development.
Since 1998, DfID has provided in excess of £110 million to support malaria control activities globally and at country-level. This includes support to Roll Back Malaria, an international partnership to reduce competition and duplication of effort, develop technical consensus, increase political commitment and raise the profile of malaria.
This commitment to combating malaria has been recently reaffirmed by DfID's pledge to increase its commitment to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria to 280 million US dollars. Successful implementation of existing Global Fund proposals will result in the annual number of treatments for resistant malaria in Africa increasing from 15,000 to 4 million and result in the purchase of 7.5 million insecticide-treated nets (ITN) over the next two years. These nets offer substantial protection against malaria. The proper use of insecticide-treated nets, combined with prompt treatment for malaria at community level, can reduce malaria transmission by as much as 60 per cent and the overall young child death rate by at least one-fifth.
DfID also provides support to the Medical Research Council (MRC); to the Malaria Consortium Resource Centre; and to initiatives to help find new low-cost malaria treatments. Malaria control activities at country-level are supported through DfID bilateral country programmes.
DfID is committed to supporting national governments and partners in order to ensure that effective drugs and commodities are accessible to the poor. We have committed over £1.5 billion, since 1997, to strengthen health systems to deliver vital drugs and health care treatment.