CHS News

Malaria Day, April 25, 2008: “Malaria: a disease without borders”

The Rollback Malaria Partnership (RBM) has designated April 25th as the annual day for organizations worldwide to reaffirm a commitment to rolling back malaria in Africa and throughout the world.

Malaria places a tremendous burden on lives and economies in endemic countries and calls for urgent world action. More than 300 million cases of malaria each year result in over one million deaths, with over 90% of these deaths occurring in Africa, mostly among young children. Malaria remains the leading cause of mortality in many African countries, disproportionately affecting young children and pregnant women.

New funding and technologies are making it possible to more effectively combat the disease and expanding opportunities to move forward to free Africa and endemic countries from malaria. This year’s slogan “Malaria: a disease without borders” is intended to mobilize communities across the world to become involved in the battle to end the epidemic. It calls upon partners to collaborate efficiently on community, local, national, regional and international levels. 

The Center for Human Services is collaborating with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct field research to improve diagnosis and treatment of malaria in remote and underserved areas.

With funding from the Gates Foundation, CHS is conducting field research on rapid, home-based tests for malaria for use with adults and children with fever. The research, in Tanzania, is examining potential demand among public and private service providers and health care consumers as well as examining the likely effects that factors such as price, sensitivity, specificity, and practicality have on potential demand.

For more information on our malaria field research, contact Dr. Steve Harvey at sharvey@urc-chs.com.

Back to News

Back to top