Photo: WHO

Malaria kills an estimated one million people annually, mostly children in Africa

NEW YORK,  – World Malaria Day on 25 April highlighted the vital importance of partnerships between the UN, governments, the private sector and civil society in fighting a disease that kills a child every 30 seconds.

“Public/private partnerships can really make a difference,” Amir Dossal, executive director of the UN Office for Partnerships, told IRIN, after attending meetings to mark the day. “The more people know of these public/private partnerships, the more opportunities they’ll get and they might even think of becoming partners in such efforts,” he added.

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) is a non-profit public-private partnership established as a foundation in Switzerland in 1999. MMV, with Novartis, introduced the first Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for children, Coartem Dispersible, earlier this year. “It’s a three-day treatment, it’s sweet-tasting, it’s cherry-flavoured,” said MMV vice-president, corporate development, Antony Kalm, who attended the meetings in Washington and at UN headquarters in New Yorak.

Bitter taste

“One of the biggest problems … for doctors was that the existing medicine was quite bitter and difficult to swallow, so the children would often spit [it] out … and … die.
“Now, children like it, want to take it, they finish the entire six tablets over three days,” he told IRIN, noting that the cost for children under 5kg is 37 cents for the entire course, and for children over 5kg, 80 cents.

“Novartis, as part of their agreement with us, have agreed to make zero profit on it. Some 20 countries have already placed orders for the drug; we know that orders number in the tens of millions, so the drug has the potential to save literally millions of children’s lives.”

Resistance

Malaria kills an estimated one million people annually, mostly children in Africa, and affects more than 50 million pregnant women every year. Up to 250 million clinical cases of malaria are reported annually worldwide.

The mosquito-borne parasite has become resistant to many traditional drugs, which is why ACT, based on a Chinese remedy made from sweet wormwood, is so important – although there are signs of resistance building to it as well.

“MMV has a pipeline of drugs because we know that the parasite can outsmart the drug after a while, as we’ve seen with the previous generation,” Kalm said. “So we actually have 50 different drugs in the pipeline at different stages. Our objective is to get all of our drugs out of our pipeline and successfully and affordably to all those [who] need them.”

Coartem Dispersible is just one of the weapons in an arsenal that also includes insecticide-treated bed nets, which were highlighted at the meetings.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported that nearly 300,000 malaria deaths had been averted and 17.5 million people better protected against malaria since 2002 thanks to net distributions by its national members.

Price cuts

Roll Back Malaria, a partnership of more than 500 members, announced that an initiative to lower the price of ACTs – the Affordable Medicines Facility – would be rolled out in 11 countries this year.

The programme will cut the cost of ACTs, through a “co-payment” by the Global Fund directly to manufacturers on behalf of buyers, to US5 cents per course of ACTs.

It also reaffirmed the goal of achieving universal coverage with control tools by the end of 2010, and of reaching near-zero deaths by 2015, a goal endorsed by the United States at a meeting in Washington on Friday that launched a partnership between African and US faith leaders, policymakers and global health experts.

Some experts and civil partners on the frontline caution against overly optimistic predictions about the demise of malaria. “Each year there are new commitments that have some kind of measure assigned,” Kalm said, noting that the Gates Foundation in 2007 used “the e-word of eradication” for the first time since the 1950s.

“We say in our lifetime and we are comfortable in saying that. Now, of course, you don’t know the age of the person you’re speaking to. I guess what we’d say is in a generation or two.”

ma/mw source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

More than 400 people worldwide have been infected with H5N1 (file photo)

DAKAR,  – Scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have engineered antibodies that can fight off multiple influenza strains, including the highly contagious H5N1 avian flu virus.

Researchers wrote that until now efforts to develop an all-purpose flu vaccine have been thwarted by the ever-mutating flu virus head, which tricks the body into producing antibodies that are only temporarily effective.

But the lab-created antibodies were able to attack in mice the virus’s hidden non-mutating neck, which prevented the virus from multiplying. Researchers have said it will be years before they learn if the antibodies will work in infected humans.

The H5N1 virus emerged in humans in Hong Kong in 1997; of the 408 cases confirmed since, 62 percent resulted in death, according to the World Health Organization as of 24 February.

pt/np source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: David Hecht/IRIN

New pig flu virus (file photo)

DAKAR,  – Health authorities in Senegal have reactivated an early warning health system put into place in 2006 following the resurgence of the H5N1 avian flu virus in Hong Kong  in response to a recent outbreak of swine influenza.

The swine influenza A/H1N1 viruses in the latest outbreak have not been previously detected in pigs or humans, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

Health workers in all districts have been on high alert to report suspicious cases, said Ministry of Health’s top advisor Assane Yaradou. Weekly health alerts have been upped to daily alerts warranted by the risk of a pandemic. The last high alert was in March 2009 in response to a regional meningitis outbreak, said Yaradou.

Doctors are to report any cluster of patients reporting flu-like symptoms.

We do not want to cause hysteria, and will issue within days more clarification on prevention. Yaradou said from earlier avian flu preparation, the country has on stock Tamilflu medication for treatment.

The health minister advisor told IRIN despite direct flights to Senegal’s capital from the United States, which has reported 20 confirmed cases of swine influenza as of 26 April, Senegal has not issued travel restrictions or changed surveillance of incoming passengers.

WHO is not recommending any travel or trade restrictions.

pt/aj
source.www.irinnews.org

By Maseme Machuka

US President Barack Obama has warned that political feuds put the country in serious jeopardy of renewed violence if the underlying causes are not rooted out.

Through the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama has written to President Kibaki and Prime minister Raila Odinga asking them to hasten the reform process.

“I am writing to urge you to intensify your efforts to advance the reform and accountability agenda agreed by all parties last year,” the letter says in part.

The US also urges Kenya, “to hold corrupt officials and those responsible for facilitating post-poll violence accountable, including through the establishment of a credible special tribunal for Kenya.”

Clinton said the effects of corruption and lack of accountability undermined the country’s prospects for prosperity.

“The United States deeply values its relationship with Kenya. We stand ready to support your efforts to accelerate reform and lay the ground work for a peaceful future,” added Clinton.

The international community has maintained interest in the Coalition Government that was brokered by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The UN’s International Criminal Court, for instance, has put the Government on notice to set up a local tribunal to try post-poll offenders.

“Let me make it clear,” the ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo said through his special adviser Beatrice le Fraper du Hellen last month, “we will act fast and relentlessly. Once we intervene we cannot be stopped.”

The move could also erode one of the highlights of the Kibaki administration of securing financial independence for the country.

source.standard.ke

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