Jhpiego commemorates Africa Malaria Day—25 April 2007
24 April 2007
Baltimore, Maryland—Jhpiego, an international health
affiliate of The Johns Hopkins University, will commemorate Africa Malaria
Day—25 April 2007 by participating in national observances in Washington, DC and Africa.
This is an annual event that exhibits solidarity with African countries battling against malaria.
Currently, Jhpiego works in 12 African countries with endemic malaria with a special focus on
interventions to prevent malaria in pregnancy and manage the disease.
Jhpiego's comprehensive approach supports the World Health Organization's (WHO)
three-pronged approach, which includes:
- In areas of stable transmission, intermittent preventive treatment
in pregnancy (IPTp) with an effective anti-malarial medication during routine antenatal care
in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, at least one month apart
- In areas of stable and unstable transmission, the use of
insecticide-treated bed nets
- In areas of unstable transmission, rapid treatment for pregnant women
showing signs of malaria
Each year, as many as 500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide,
leading to one million deaths, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority
of malaria deaths occur in Africa, especially in remote rural areas with poor access to health
services. Malaria is especially dangerous for pregnant women and their unborn children.
In sub-Saharan Africa, malaria infection is estimated to cause 400,000 cases
of severe maternal anemia and 75,000–200,000 infant deaths annually. Maternal
anemia contributes significantly to maternal mortality and causes an estimated 10,000 deaths per
year. Co-infections of malaria and HIV/AIDS—which are most common in sub-Saharan Africa—have major
health implications. HIV/AIDS increases the risk of infection with malaria and decreases response
to standard anti-malarial treatment. Malaria also contributes to increased viral load among
HIV-infected people.
"Statistics show that women attending focused antenatal care have a much greater
likelihood of remaining free of malaria and delivering a healthy baby," says Dr. Leslie Mancuso,
President and CEO of Jhpiego. "Jhpiego's programs in Africa promote integrating malaria in pregnancy
services as part of routine antenatal care."
Jhpiego assists countries with revising malaria policies, developing training materials,
strengthening pre-service education and in-service training, improving community awareness,
improving services through quality assurance and establishing monitoring and evaluation
systems—all key to building country-level expertise necessary to scale up malaria programs.
In addition, Jhpiego works in close collaboration with the Roll Back Malaria (RBM)
Partnership, which was launched in 1998 by the World Health Organization, the United Nations
Children's Fund, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank to provide a
coordinated global approach to fighting malaria. The RBM Partnership's goal is to halve the global
burden of malaria by the year 2010. Under the slogan "Free Africa from Malaria NOW!"
this year's focus is on the need to work together to reverse the progression of malaria and make
a significant impact in endemic countries.
About Jhpiego
For nearly 40 years, Jhpiego, (pronounced "ja-pie-go"), has empowered front-line health
workers by designing and implementing simple, low-cost, hands-on solutions that
strengthen the delivery of health care services, following the
household-to-hospital continuum of care. We partner with community- to
national-level organizations to build sustainable, local capacity through
advocacy, policy and guidelines development, and quality and performance
improvement approaches.
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