White House Summit Encourages Governments, Private Sector, U.S. Public To Fight Spread of Malaria in Africa

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush on Thursday in Washington, D.C., hosted the White House Summit on Malaria, which aimed to garner support from governments, the private sector and the U.S. public for the fight against malaria in Africa, the AP/CNN.com reports (AP/CNN.com, 12/14). Advocates, African and U.N. officials, and nongovernmental organizations attended the summit, which also aimed to serve as a forum to encourage governments and corporations to join together in the fight against the disease, according to U.S. officials (AFP/Yahoo! News, 12/12). "Last year, about a million Africans died of malaria," President Bush said at the summit, adding, "The vast majority were children under five. Their lives ended by nothing more than a mosquito bite. By bringing together such a wide variety of people, the summit is sending a clear message that we are determined to defeat malaria." President Bush also said that the fight against malaria will not succeed unless there are governments in Africa "willing and capable to do the hard work necessary to educate people and spread nets and insecticides necessary to deal with a disease that can be defeated." Laura Bush urged U.S. school children to each donate $10 for the purchase of insecticide-treated nets to help prevent the deaths of African children.

President's Malaria Initiative
President Bush on Thursday also announced the addition of eight African countries -- Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali and Zambia -- to the President's Malaria Initiative (AP/CNN.com, 12/14). President Bush in June 2005 announced the $1.2 billion, five-year initiative, which aims to reduce by half the number of malaria-related deaths in 15 African countries. Angola, Tanzania and Uganda were named focus countries when PMI was announced, and Laura Bush in June 2006 announced the addition of Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal to the list of countries receiving U.S. support under PMI (GlobalHealthReporting.org, 6/9). According to U.S. Malaria Coordinator Timothy Ziemer, the launch of PMI served as a call to the private sector to join the fight against malaria. PMI has reached six million people in Angola, Tanzania and Uganda with insecticide spraying, the provision of insecticide-treated nets and malaria treatment, Ziemer said (AFP/Yahoo! News, 12/12).

NGO Involvement
The newly formed nongovernmental organization Malaria No More, which also is organizing the summit, has started efforts to increase awareness in the U.S. about malaria (Donelly, Boston Globe, 12/14). According to John Bridgeland, CEO of Malaria No More, the group aims to garner public support for the fight against malaria during the summit. The summit is "literally our base camp, where this is a first step in ... a three-month undertaking to help galvanize and organize the private sector," Bridgeland said (Agence France-Presse, 12/12). Laura Bush said that Malaria No More will "reach out to let people know what they can do as individuals, as Girl Scouts, as Boy Scouts, as church groups, as Sunday schools," including funding raising (Boston Globe, 12/14). Other summit attendees included World Health Organization Director-General Elect Margaret Chan, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-founder Melinda Gates and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (AFP/Yahoo! News, 12/12).

Editorial, Opinion Piece Respond to White House Malaria Summit
Editorial

• Los Angeles Times: Although there are "success stories" in the fight against malaria, the "expansion of effective" malaria control efforts might be "endangered," a Times editorial says. The budget for the current fiscal year, which ends in September 2007, that Congress will consider next month "caps overall spending at the same level as the previous year," the editorial says, adding, "That means the president's programs to fight malaria may not have the same effect next year." In addition, the "U.S. contribution to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria could be frozen at last year's level of $545 million," according to the Times. "Congress will have the flexibility to move funds around from one area to another, even if it can't increase overall spending," the editorial says, adding, "It should make sure these vital programs get the money they need" (Los Angeles Times, 12/14).

• Roger Bate, Washington Times: Although recent changes to USAID's malaria programs and spending are "welcom[e]," one "key problem remains" in that there "appears to be no effort to disengage USAID from supporting large Beltway contractors, often with little competition in contracting," American Enterprise Institute resident fellow Roger Bate writes in a Times opinion piece. "This is hard to square with USAID's stated commitment to build country capacity and foster sustainable development," Bate writes, adding, "But this problem should not stop the White House celebrations today" because "[f]ewer children have malaria because of the President's Malaria Initiative" (Bate, Washington Times, 12/14).