Zanzibar President Karume Urges Proper Use of Donor Funds To Address Malaria, Other Diseases

Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume on Monday urged East African governments to use donor funds wisely to address malaria and other diseases, including HIV and tuberculosis, the Citizen reports. Karume said the region should demonstrate that funds from the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other donors have helped advance efforts against malaria and other diseases, Karume said.

According to Karume, health systems might face certain challenges in implementing donor funding effectively, such as ensuring a proper division of resources. He suggested that countries receiving funding train local citizens on financial resource management and procurement procedures. In addition, governments should strive to upgrade health service delivery centers and improve the efficiency of procurement systems to align with the standards of donor organizations, Karume said. "We would like to see more alignment of the Global Fund policies to the country systems," he said, adding that this would "not only ensure that disbursements reach the end user fast but also fast movement of reports from lower level to the Global Fund."

According to the Citizen, 10,700 malaria outpatient cases occurred in Zanzibar in 2008, down from 48,807 in 1999. In addition, the number of malaria hospital admissions declined to 1,416 in 2008 from 10,058 in 1999. Zanzibar's introduction of artemisinin-based combination therapies in 2003 also has helped reduce malaria prevalence on the island from 35% in 1999 to less than 1% in 2008. In addition, the island began indoor insecticide spraying and distribution of insecticide-treated nets in 2005, the Citizen reports. Karume said that although the effect of these interventions has been dramatic, the island will need to scale up malaria control efforts to reach the majority of the population (Citizen, 2/10).