Global Fund Provides $20M to Curb Malaria in Nigeria

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Oct. 23 signed a $20 million grant agreement with the Yakubu Gowon Center in Abuja, Nigeria, to curb malaria infections among pregnant women and children in the country, Nigeria's This Day reports. The pledge will be distributed under the Roll Back Malaria initiative and includes the Nigerian Ministry of Health as a sub-recipient. Gen. Yakubu Gowon the center's president and chair of the board of trustees, said the initiative will promote the use of artemisinin combination therapy as a replacement for chloroquine treatment. Cloroquine has become "less effective" in treating the disease in several areas of the country, according to This Day. The initiative also aims to improve home treatment and management of the disease (Adoba, This Day, 10/24).