AMMREN Celerates world Malaria Day

According to the WHO, a child dies every thirty seconds of malaria in Africa. The disease continues to be the leading cause of death on the Continent. This is not acceptable.

Lot of efforts all over the world have gone into Malaria Prevention, Treatment and Eradication. Global leaders through the Global Fund, African Leaders’ Roll Back Malaria Plan, National Malaria Control Programmes, Malaria Research Institutions, and other organisations such as the INDEPTH Network, Malaria Clinical Trial Alliance and the African Malaria and Research Network have all outlined innovative measures to help eradicate malaria.

The malaria research fraternity has come a long way in developing a vaccine candidate that is about 60 percent effective in infants. All that is required now is the support to get it to the next level. Now, more than ever, we need to make the most of the tools we already have to save lives.

Africa’s political leaders went to Abuja in 2000 and set targets for malaria control. We need to live by them and we look up to our health researchers and policy technocrats to keep us on track to deliver on our declarations in the Nigerian capital.

We singled out targets that were to be achieved by 2010. It is time we took a candid look at what our National Malaria Control Programmes have achieved so far.

The media has a critical role to play in getting the malaria story out. And what is the story? That malaria can be prevented, malaria can be controlled and malaria can be treated!!! This is the reason why we have chosen “Counting on the Media to Eradicate Malaria” as the theme for this seminar. The media as we all know are the gatekeepers of every society, the lead and torchbearers in promoting change and new ideas. They must therefore not be left out in counting malaria out of the world. Infact, it is only through active participation of the media in Malaria eradication efforts that the menace can be conquered.

We have therefore brought together for this seminar, seasoned scientists and individuals whose focus is on malaria and other health concerns, media experts as well as journalists are all present here today. The key objectives of the seminar are:

To create a platform for scientists and journalists to share ideas on how to work together to reduce the burden of malaria
To be updated on the current situation of malaria and efforts to eradiate the disease.
To have an update on the malaria vaccine trials.
Essentially to re-affirm our commitment to ‘counting out malaria’ from Africa. to work together to eradicate malaria from the continent of Africa.

We are grateful to our sponsors, Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance(MCTA) of the INDEPTH Network, our supporters namely the INDEPTH Network, Kintampo Health Research Centre, The National Malaria Control Programme, and our patron, Dr Alex Dodoo and all our resource persons for accepting to be here.

We can eradicate malaria. Zambia has already shown the way. YES WE CAN!!!.