World Malaria Day Recognized by Senate Committee

On May 17, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved en bloc, by voice vote, a resolution (S. Con. Res. 15) recognizing World Malaria Day.

Sponsored by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), the resolution contains a number of findings, including:

• Young children and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable and disproportionately affected by malaria;
• Malaria greatly affects child health, with estimates that children under the age of five account for 85 percent of malaria deaths each year;
• Malaria poses great risks to maternal health, causing complications during delivery, anemia, and low birth weights, with estimates that malaria infection causes 400,000 cases of severe maternal anemia and from 75,000 to 200,000 infant deaths annually in sub-Saharan Africa;
• Continued national, regional, and international investment is critical to continue to reduce malaria deaths and to prevent backsliding in those areas where progress has been made;
• Under the Global Health Initiative, the United States government is pursuing a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to global health, focused on helping partner countries to achieve major improvements in overall health outcomes through transformational advances in access to, and the quality of, healthcare services in resource-poor settings; and
• Recognizing the burden of malaria on many partner countries, the President’s Malaria Initiative has set the target for 2015 of reducing the burden of malaria by 50 percent for 450 million people, representing 70 percent of the at-risk population in Africa.

Among other provisions, the resolution “recognizes the importance of reducing malaria prevalence and deaths to improve overall child and maternal health, especially in sub-Saharan Africa” and “welcomes ongoing public-private partnerships to research and develop more effective and affordable tools for malaria diagnosis, treatment, and vaccination.”