October 20, 2021
Today, Friends of the Global Fight, Malaria No More and Nothing but Nets hosted a webinar on how to end malaria. The webinar was inspired by the launch of the new Ending Malaria report which highlights six locations where communities have made impressive progress to significantly reduce malaria cases and deaths.
Featuring opening remarks from Dr. Raj Panjabi, U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator, the webinar consisted of moderated panel discussion and Q&A session. Click below to watch the full event:
Panelists included:
- Ambassador Anthony Okara, African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA)
- Olivia Ngou, Impacte Sante Afrique + Civil Society for Malaria Elimination (CSME)
- Dr. Luis Gerardo Castellanos, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
- Dr. Prayuth Sudathip, Thailand’s National Malaria Control Program
- Moderated by Dylan Matthews, Vox
Some Highlights:
- “We are at a pivotal turning point in this story. Today, forty countries are free of malaria. Each location profiled in this report provides us with a blueprint for success. This report makes it clear that it’s not easy to make progress against malaria, but it also makes it clear that we know how to do so.” – Dr. Raj Panjabi, PMI
- “I’d like to acknowledge the US’s contribution – it has been exemplary. It’s a battle that can’t be fought by themselves, which is why they’ve partnered with agencies and institutions from around the world. It’s important that this partnership, collaboration and coordination is maintained at the highest level. ” – Dr. Luis G. Castellanos, PAHO
- “It is important for us to go one step beyond community engagement around providing malaria services. We can have the best tools in the world, but if the community isn’t using them effectively we won’t have the impact we need. We need to really have communities lead the interventions at the community levels and lead monitoring of programs to be sure of success.” – Olivia Ngou, CS4ME and Impact Sante Afrique
- “COVID-19 initially did derail the war on malaria, especially in Africa. However, there was a good response and we’ve managed to get preventive services back on track. How did we manage to do this? We learned very important lessons from previous outbreaks. We suffered from Ebola and the impact it had on access to services was so devastating. The beauty is that fighting and investing in malaria is often investing in the health systems. The benefits are clear.” – Ambassador Anthony Okara, ALMA
- “Global fight to end malaria has been very successful in the Greater Mekong Subregion, where currently malaria cases have reduced by 97% between 2000-2020 with great support from the US. In Thailand, we are near elimination. We have support from both the Global Fund and PMI in the Mekong subregion, and we work closely with them to harmonize approaches and resources to meet the technical needs of our countries.” – Dr. Prayuth Sudathip, Thailand Ministry of Public Health