African leaders call for more efforts to fight malaria, neglected diseases

African leaders under the umbrella organisation, African Leader Malaria Alliance (ALMA), have called on member states to up their stakes in ensuing that malaria as well as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are eliminated on the continent. Speaking at ALMA event held at the margins of the 30th African Union Heads of State and Government Summit, yesterday, Akinwuma Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, said that malaria “strains” national economies and impoverishes households, costing Africa a whopping US$12 billion a year. “Malaria is bad for business,” Adesina said. The African Leaders Malaria Alliance is a coalition of 49 African Heads of State and Government working across country and regional borders to eliminate malaria by 2030. Prime Minister of Swaziland Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini, speaking on behalf of ALMA chair King Mswati III, noted that there should never be room for complacency from continental leaders if the disease is to be eliminated in the region. “Mosquitoes do not recognise country boundaries. We must work together regionally, continentally and globally,” he said. Joy Phumaphi, the Executive Secretary of ALMA noted that the fight against malaria can be won if leaders at all levels and partners are “fully committed” to the cause. “The fight against malaria must be won and can be won. But in order for us to win this fight everybody must be involved, the politicians at every level from Heads of State to the community levels. The private sector must commit to this fight,” Phumaphi noted. Adesina added that malaria cases in Africa had seen “astonishing reductions” since 2000 when the African leaders committed to eliminate the disease by agreeing on annual ALMA scorecard, an indication that if stakeholders were fully committed to end the disease, they actually can. But, the commitment to eliminate malaria has in the recent past reduced as partner states cut their funding towards combating malaria to responsible agencies, including ministries, according to Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. “Funding levels since 2014 are dropping in many high burden countries making it hard to meet the goals for malaria control and elimination,” Moeti said at the ALMA event yesterday. Senegal, Madagascar, Gambia, Comoros, Algeria and Zimbabwe received ALMA Awards 2018 at the AU summit for leading the way in the fight to end malaria. NTDS added on ALMA scorecard Meanwhile, continental leaders’ malaria alliance (ALMA) has added neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) to its annual scorecard on disease progress. The scorecard is personally reviewed by African Heads of State and Government every year, putting NTDs alongside malaria and maternal and child health as top health priorities for the continent. Developed by the WHO in collaboration with Uniting to Combat NTDs, this index reports progress for the 47 NTD-affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa in their strategies to treat and prevent the five most common NTDs: lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths and trachoma. By adding NTDs to the scorecard, African leaders made a public commitment to hold themselves accountable for progress on these diseases. The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, urged his peers to be determined to ensure ‘neglected’ are taken out of the diseases that kill people in the region The latest report on NTDs, released at the ALMA event ranked Rwanda in 33rd position. The 2016 NTD County Profile provides an overview of all the 47 African countries in reaching people in need of mass NTD treatment based on 2016 data. Swaziland, Malawi and Burkina Faso rank 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively, among the African countries that have registered most progress in treating NTDs, according to the report. At least 4.38 million people received treatment in Rwanda in 2016, while 810,000 in need “did not receive treatment in Rwanda in 2016”, the report says. “Increase budget allocation for neglected tropical diseases at the national level. Provide timely data to the Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ESPEN) to enable monitoring and planning,” the report recommends. Forty per cent of the global NTD burden is in Africa, the study shows. Out of the 17 countries that have been validated as having eliminated one of the five diseases, only two are from Africa (Morocco [trachoma, 2016] and Togo [lymphatic filariasis, 2017]). More than 1.5 billion people are at risk for NTDs globally, including more than 620 million in Africa. The WHO has set a target of eliminating at least one NTD in 30 countries by 2023. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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African leaders call for more efforts to fight malaria, neglected diseases