Thanks to a marked increase in funding, African countries are absorbing billions of dollars for malaria control over the next few years to reach the 2010 universal coverage goal. It’s vital that these countries be equipped with the expertise and skills to build aggressive and effective action plans. To support countries in this effort, we’re working with MACEPA to conduct regional training workshops with National Malaria Control Programs from 32 different African countries. Led by the Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP), the workshops provide an opportunity for countries to share best practices, get advice from African and international experts and create strategies for implementing, monitoring and evaluating mass bed-net distribution campaigns.

Last month, we attended the AMP Logistics Training Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. We collected the materials presented there to aide logisticians, those working with/or as principal recipients, country partners, and external logistics resource persons implementing mosquito net distributions, which currently live on our Website for your convenience.

AMP is sponsored by ExxonMobile, MACEPA, Malaria No More and Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

Be sure to tune in tonight to the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The team traveled to Tanzania over the summer to learn about the country’s aggressive efforts to fight malaria, what the US President’s Malaria Initiative is up to, and the latest on vaccine trials in the south of the country.

Tonight, they present their findings about how Tanzania is winning the fight against malaria.

Read more about the program and get a sneak peek here.

Ray Chambers, the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria, released the following statement upon the publication of the Declaration of Responsible Leadership for A Sustainable Future, set forth by G8 leaders this week at their meeting in Italy.

“At a critical moment in the global campaign against malaria, the G8’s reaffirmation of its commitment to fighting the disease adds greatly appreciated momentum to our collective efforts. 

“I look forward to continuing to work with the governments on fulfilling their 2008 pledge to supply 100 million lifesaving mosquito nets, so that together we can meet Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s goal of the universal provision of malaria control interventions by December 31, 2010. 

“In particular, I wish to thank the G8 for its recognition of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, an organization that will prove absolutely essential in our shared mission to end deaths from this disease.”

Also, be sure to check out Ray’s guest blog post at the Millennium Villages Blog, entitled “Nigerian Mosquito Net Deliveries Protect Millions from Malaria“.

We thank Ray for his leadership and vision in the fight against malaria! For more information, please visit www.malariaenvoy.com.

The Telegraph (UK) reports today that the Galapagos giant tortoise—the symbolic and much-beloved animal of the Galapagos islands—may be at risk of malaria brought to the islands by tourists.

A new study by the University of Leeds and Zoological Society of London explains that the risk has been increased because, while mainland generally mosquitoes prefer the blood of mammals and birds, on Galapagos the insect has shifted its behaviour to feed mainly on reptiles.

Hang on, though…human malaria can’t spread to animals, nor vice-versa. So it seems like either (a) a malaria-carrying mosquito itself would need to hop a plane to the islands for a little R&R or (b) an animal already carrying the malaria parasite would go to visit relatives and all heck would break loose!!

Either way, my advice to Lonesome George, the only surviving Galapagos giant tortoise is to stay Lonesome and not open the door to anyone you don’t know!

The Global Humanitarian Forum, an organization led by Kofi Annan, released a report today stating that 300,00 people die every year as a result of climate change.

“Human Impact Report: Climate Change — The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis” suggests that rising sea levels, desertification and changing rainfall patterns are reducing many people’s access to safe drinking water and food. This in turn increases the threat of illness, including malaria.

Climate change and malaria are closely linked, as an increase in the earth’s temperature allows malaria-carrying mosquitoes to thrive in areas that were previously too cold for them to survive.

247 million people are infected with malaria worldwide every year and nearly one million die, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to a recent Gallup Poll , “Polls conducted in 23 sub-Saharan African countries reveal that, in most of these countries, more people reported having mosquito nets in their homes in 2008 than they did in 2006. The largest increase was in Benin, where the reported presence of mosquito nets increased from 44% to 79%.”

This is new data, showing some encouraging progress over the past few years—and following up on last year’s WHO World Malaria Report, which includes data through 2006.

That means that there are more nets over beds. And we’re 100% sure that’s good news.

Ministers of Health are meeting in Geneva this week and one thing they’re talking about is the fight against malaria in Africa. Malaria No More and Johns Hopkins University’s Voices for a Malaria-Free Future, as part of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, put together this video to show how Mali is fighting and winning the battle to end malaria deaths.

MNM and international partners teamed up with the government of Mali to distribute mosquito nets to distribute 2.7 million mosquito nets in December 2007. Now, Mali has the highest mosquito net utilization rate in Africa, thanks in large part to their use of local music, theater and sport to create a culture of net use. Congratulations!

Ministres de Santé rendez-vous cette semaine à Genève et une des sujets à discuter est la lutte contre le paludisme en Afrique. Malaria No More et VOICES, qui font parti de Roll Back Malaria, assemblaient ce vidéo pour montrer comment le Mali lutte contre le palu. Le Mali a maintenant le taux d’utilisation le plus élevé de moustiquaires imprégnée d’insecticides en Afrique, grâce à l’utilisation de la  musique locale, le théâtre et le sport pour encourager une culture d’utilisation. Félicitations !

Be sure to check out Part 2 of Malaria No Mo CEO Scott Case’s interview with AdAge, called “What Twitter Can Do to Avoid the Next Swine-Flu Panic“.

After seeing how Twitter can have a huge impact in raising awareness and inspiring action against a global disease on World Malaria Day, Scott offers some advice on how social networking and new media tools can help disseminiate information, educate the public and minimize panic.

Check out the article here.

It’s here, it’s here!

Finally, the day of the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations initiatives has arrived! The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today 81 grants of $100,000 each to researchers in 17 countries to explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries.

Happily, several of these “unconventional” research projects will be working on new and innovative ways to fight malaria—helping the malaria community to add new tools to its arsenal of weapons in the global war against malaria. Some of these projects include:

• Giving Malaria Mosquitoes a Fungus-Induced “Head Cold” to Stop Odor-Driven Feeding on Humans
• Development of a Rapid Urine-Based Dipstick Test for Diagnosis of Malaria
• Network of Outdoor Mosquito Traps to Reduce Transmission in Rural Areas

Check out the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health website to find out more details about the Next Big Thing in the battle against health challenges in the developing world.

A big thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their incredible leadership in the fight against malaria and for encouraging research and development into new tools at every opportunity. Though we can hardly be shocked at their vision…after all, it was Mr. Gates who first encouraged the laser-wielding malaria fighters.

Mad Scientists, go forth and create!

This just in from The New York Times:

“A vast majority of the World Bank’s projects to combat AIDS failed to perform satisfactorily over the past decade, with the ones in Africa, the region at the epicenter of the pandemic, registering the worst record, according to a new internal evaluation.

While the focus on AIDS accounted for nearly 60 percent of the bank’s projects on communicable diseases from 1997 to 2006, more successful efforts aimed at malaria [and others]…got far fewer resources. Malaria, for example, made up 3 percent of the projects.”

The World Bank Booster Program is a global leader and funder of malaria control efforts; the Bank is one of the major reasons that Africa has seen significant successes in the fight against malaria in recent years. In addition, the World Bank announced Phase II of its Booster Program in September 2008, providing an additional $1.1bil to fight malaria in Africa and help the world end deaths from the disease.

Read the full article in the Times here.