Jessica Uno is winner of the World Briefing: Telling the Malaria Contest co-sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation and Malaria No More. Her winning essay earned her a trip to cover the MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference in Kenya and report back on the latest in the global effort to end malaria.

I am fortunate to be at this conference attending fascinating presentations and meeting so many incredible players on the malaria scene. The opportunity to  learn about their experiences and motivations has taught me so much about malaria in just a few days.

One of the first admirable individuals I interviewed was Caterina Capaccioli, head of Strategic Planning & Execution, Malaria Initiatives at Novartis. Caterina introduced me to the role that collaboration among different organizations—corporations, non profits, African miniseries of health and others—have played in successfully reducing the malaria burden. For example, Novartis has worked closely with the Chinese government to develop effective innovations.  Another example  is the partnership between organizations like Malaria No More who help distribute mosquito nets and those who produce and distribute antimalarial treatments, pairing prevention and treatment. One major advantage to such collaborations is the greater number of skills and resources available to unite against malaria.

Combining unique specialties among partners is necessary when facing the constantly evolving malaria threat. A united front is much stronger and efficient than many  individual effort!

Jessica’s trip to Kenya was supported by Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation and Malaria No More.

Jessica Uno is winner of the World Briefing: Telling the Malaria Contest co-sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation and Malaria No More. Her winning essay earned her a trip to cover the MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference in Kenya and report back on the latest in the global effort to end malaria.

Ambassador Mark Green

Before I left for Nairobi, Emily from MNM set up a phone interview for me with Mark Green, executive director of Malaria No More’s Policy Center. Mr. Green recently finished serving as U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania and helped craft a number of policies and programs surrounding American foreign aid in women’s rights and health, AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Ambassador Green’s impressive accomplishments and the fact that he was my first interview for this trip made me quite nervous about talking to him, but I was pleasantly surprised by his open and encouraging personality.

Ambassador Green has demonstrated his prowess in navigating policy related to Africa. His firsthand experiences living and working in Africa, personally suffering malaria, observing the child lives lost, families damaged, and economic productivity impaired by malaria have made him a skilled leader and policymaker. Ambassador Green described to me that until recently, malaria seemed an inevitable fact of life in Africa. However, we now know that malaria is highly treatable and preventable.

One point that stood out in our interview was the need to finish the job with malaria eradication. It is clear that we have the prevention and treatment tools that, when combined, are extremely effective in reducing malaria deaths. However, applying these tools to achieve our goal requires extended attention from the public, policymakers and leaders. According to Ambassador Green, some people would look at the statistic stating that malaria rates are less than 1% in Zanzibar and think “Oh, malaria’s not a problem anymore!” It is when this attitude takes hold however that malaria comes roaring back.

For those who aren’t familiar with malaria, it is a parasite that is transmitted by mosquitoes to humans. Once in a human, some of the parasites hide dormant in the body while others go out attacking, and so even if you clear a patient of the attacking parasites, the dormant ones are still there, capable of popping out unexpectedly and wreaking further havoc. Same in mosquitoes, not all of the parasites leave the mosquito when it bites a human. Thus, there are many ways the parasite persist in either human or mosquito hosts.

As Ambassador Green put it, “mosquitoes don’t respect national borders.” Until we completely stamp out the Plasmodium parasite, it will always be capable of returning with a vengeance, either through mosquitoes or humans. It’s an all or nothing battle. It requires commitment, but our progress so far has been extremely promising, and Ambassador Green believes that our efforts will be worthwhile during our lifetime. And the progress we make in fighting malaria and the surge of humanitarian energy such a victory would generate can be applied to thousands of causes elsewhere.

Jessica’s trip to Kenya was supported by Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation and Malaria No More.

Our own Kate Campana recently visited Tanzania to scope out the scene for our future awareness program, similar to the “Surround Sound Senegal” program we helped launch in Dakar in June. The Tanzania awareness program would offer support to the government of Tanzania for the Universal Coverage Campaign. In 2008 and 2009, MNM distributed 267,000 mosquito nets in Tanzania as part of a 7.2 million mosquito net distribution.

While there, Kate met with Alex Mwita, manager of the National Malaria Control Program, PSI Malaria Control, Johns Hopkins, health partners and country leaders to discuss current initiatives, future net distributions and necessary actions to support activities moving forward.

The highlight of her trip was visiting with the Tanzania House of Talent (THT) in Dar es Salaam, an NGO that shelters disadvantaged youth and helps them improve their livelihoods through artistic talent. THT is the only Tanzania center that invests in the lives of young people through performing arts, regardless of their social, educational or financial background. Through integrating performing arts into the Tanzanian awareness program, we hope to inspire social change and encourage positive and proactive behavior change towards malaria in the people that live there.

Details on next year’s Tanzania awareness program will be available soon. Continue to check on Buzzwords for program updates.

You’ve heard of “Text to Give”—but how about “Text to Live”?

Novartis has teamed up with Roll Back Malaria, Vodafone and IBM to design, develop and implement the SMS for Life pilot project in Tanzania to make sure all malaria patients have easy access to the life saving anti-malarial medication.

The first step to ending malaria deaths in Africa is to provide universal access to malaria control tools including nets, spraying and effective medicine—and when treating malaria, quick access to the right medicine is a matter of life or death.

SMS for Life harnesses the power of mobile technology to determine availability of medicine at health facilities and ensure that the need to replenish is communicated quickly and effectively.

In the pilot program, over 94% of all health facilities in the Lindi District of Tanzania are sending weekly updates on their stock via cell phone. If successful, this project could have far reaching benefits:  timely tracking and management of supplies means that medicine can arrive where they are most needed.

And that’s gr8.

Nigeria–the country that carries a THIRD of the world’s malaria burden—is part of a never-before-seen effort to aggressively cut malaria deaths within its borders. Thanks to huge investments by the World Bank, USAID and others, Nigeria is distributing 63 million mosquito nets in just 18 months.

See here a CNN report on the effort:

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.

I’m in Kenya this week working with a team of logisticians who are crucial to Africa’s current race to scale-up mosquito nets. But the minute we end our session here on Thursday, I’ll be racing back to New York so I can perform with the New York Songwriters Circle on Monday night.

Modeled after the famous “Writers in the Round” nights at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, the NYSC showcases up-and-coming songwriting talent from around the world. Intimate concerts like these always remind me of a song’s power to communicate where mere words might fail us. That’s why I wrote “A Closer Far”, a song born out of my own experiences working in Africa on behalf of Malaria No More.  I’m looking forward to performing it along with other favorites of mine and I hope to see you all there.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of “A Closer Far” support the ongoing work of Malaria No More. Buy the song here. To hear my music, check out MySpace.

After months of planning with our Alliance for Malaria Prevention partners, Ananda and I arrived to “spring” here in Nairobi, Kenya for a four-day workshop on mass mosquito net campaign logistics. It’s not easy stuff, and as African countries prepare to scale up nets by the millions to meet the 2010 goal of universal net coverage, MNM recognizes the importance of providing a forum where individuals engaged in planning and implementing distributions can enhance their skills and share best practices.

On Sunday night, 40 participants arrived here at the Safari Park Hotel from all over the continent of Africa. Within minutes of kicking off the workshop, the high engagement level of the group made it clear that we are going to make a lot of headway this week. More later…Kwaheri!

Learn more about the AMP training workshops here.

Update! Our partners in the training workshops, MACEPA, have also been blogging about this week’s events in Nairobi. Be sure to check out the notes from the field from Paul Libiszowski, MACEPA’s intervention planning and distribution expert. It’s not fair that we be the only ones to benefit from Paul’s wisdom—so we wanted to spread the wealth!

It’s crunch time, college kids! The deadline is approaching for the “World Briefing: Telling the Malaria Story” contest to win a FREE trip to Kenya. To enter:

• Write a personal statement of 500 words – that’s like only 2 blog posts!
• One tweet – OK, we’re talking about one sentence here
• Submit all your materials before midnight – no all-nighters necessary – this Friday!

The grand prize winner will be announced the week of September 21^st, and will travel to Nairobi, Kenya to report live from the global MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference November 2-6, 2009. The winner will meet African and international journalists covering global health issues, attend presentations with top malaria researchers and travel to local clinics to interview healthcare workers and patients – AND report on their experiences via articles, blog posts and tweets!

With your words, you can help spread the word about malaria and create real change – not to mention, ditch the classroom for a week!

Make sure to check out ALL the details on our site.

Gates Foundation Program Officer and MNM Board Member Gabrielle Fitzgerald is blogging for the ONE Campaign during her trip to Tanzania with the WHO’s Dr. Margaret Chan, the UN Special Envoy for Malaria Mr. Ray Chambers, and the Gates Foundation’s Dr. Tachi Yamada.

See below for an excerpt from her most recent post, Day Four: Bulimba, Uganda – Yes, we will help!

After leaving the village, we headed to Balibaseka Secondary School, where Uganda’s Vice President, Gilbert Bukenya, hosted a ceremony to welcome the delegation, honor the volunteer drug distributors and educate the community about malaria.

After schoolchildren recited a poem reminding their listeners of the symptoms of malaria, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization, asked all the young people in the audience to help in the fight against malaria. They all shouted back in unison, “Yes, we will help!”

Read the full post here.