Quick Facts on Malaria
- An African child dies from malaria every 30 seconds.
- Malaria kills more than one million people a year; between 350 million and 500 million more are infected with malaria disease annually.
- Approximately 40 percent of the world’s population is at-risk of contracting malaria; in many parts of Africa, one in two people will contract the disease this year.
- Many African families spend as much as 25% of their annual income on malaria treatment.
- In endemic countries, malaria control and treatment reduces aggregate economic growth rates by approximately 1.3% annually.
- Malaria costs Africa approximately $12 billion in health expenditures, production losses and other direct and indirect expenses every year.
- The use of long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets in high transmission areas would reduce child deaths from malaria illness by 50%.
- Prevention and treatment of malaria in Africa costs approximately US$3.2 billion annually.
- In endemic countries, malaria can account for up to 40% of total public health expenditures and up to 50% of all inpatient admissions.
GBC to Host and Coordinate the Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa (CAMA)
A coalition of companies with operations in Africa is kicking off a new partnership with GBC. GBC will help to orchestrate collaborations and other initiatives for the Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa (CAMA), a major component of the private sector’s stepped-up activity designed to improve the impact of malaria control efforts in sub-Saharan Africa.
CAMA’s founding member companies—many of whom already implement or finance leading-edge malaria initiatives—are Marathon Oil Corporation, Bayer Environmental Science, Global Industries, Cameron International, Coca Cola Africa, Chevron, EDG Engineers, Halliburton, Noble Energy, Wood Group and WorleyParsons. Each company has committed to the Alliance’s goals and objectives and will play an active role in accomplishing CAMA's mandate.
Dr. Adel Chaouch, Marathon Oil’s Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, is also the first Director of the Board for the Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa (CAMA). Dr. Chaouch discusses how CAMA is poised to play a significant role in improving the effectiveness of malaria-control programs in the region.
CAMA organizing private sector collaboration with PMI, Global Fund and other global initiatives Creating a framework to increase the impact of malaria interventions in local communities Malaria fight enhanced through targeted private sector involvement
- Mapping major private sector initiatives against malaria.
- Creating an evidence-based roadmap for eliminating malaria targeting workplaces, families and communities.
- Catalyzing scaled-up malaria control efforts by more companies across more business sectors to make large, demonstrable reductions in malaria incidence across Africa.
- Leveraging government investment to sustain gains at the community level.
Malaria: Business Scales Up Action to End a Truly Preventable Killer
Malaria - one of the greatest threats to global health and economic welfare - is also one of the most preventable epidemics currently afflicting humanity. We know how to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease – the issue is one of resources, and logistics. Business action is thus a critical pillar in the worldwide fight. GBC member contributions in the global effort span the full-spectrum of public health interventions, including the distribution of life-saving bed nets, treatment for infected pregnant women and the development of new diagnostic tools and medications.
Business Takes Action Against Malaria
Marathon Oil Corporation
Marathon Oil’s Malaria Control Program in Equatorial Guinea is a perfect demonstration of how local communities prosper when new malaria cases are averted. The Bioko Island program dramatically reduced malaria transmission, averting an estimated 150,000 cases in its first year of implementation. The project involves partners from civil society, government, research institutes and local businesses and focuses on vector control, case management, monitoring and surveillance. For every dollar invested, the return to the community in improved productivity and averted cases was four dollars.
» Bioko Island: A Successful Partnership for Social Health
» Further Resources (PDF)
Sumitomo Chemical Corporation
Sumitomo Chemical Corporation’s new factory in Tanzania quickly gets nets to people who need them, while making a direct investment into an endemic region that provides a significant contribution to its overall economic development. A leading manufacturer of long-lasting, insecticide treated bed nets, Sumitomo’s new Arusha Net Factory seamlessly connects its core business objectives to the fulfillment of a critical public health need – combating malaria in impoverished communities. The Arusha facility will produce 10 million nets per year and create more than 3,000 local jobs.
» Sumitomo Chemical: Locally Produced Nets Save Lives, Offer Economic Opportunity
» Executive Perspective: Tatsuo Mizuno, General Manger, Sumitomo Chemical Vector Control Department, discusses their commitment to the fight against malaria, and its new bed net production facility in Tanzania
Novartis
Novartis, an innovative pharmaceutical company that produces an artemisinin-based, fixed-dose anti-malarial medication with cure rates approaching 95%, collaborates with the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to provide the medication to endemic countries, and since 2001 has provided more than 160 million treatments without profit to those most in need. It has now announced a further 20% average price reduction in the drug, further expanding access to at-risk populations in endemic regions of the world. In 2006, Novartis organized two National Malaria Control workshops, one in Johannesburg, South Africa and one in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. that gathered stakeholders from malaria-endemic African countries to share best practices and to discuss how to work together to meet the challenges ahead. It also developed a documentary film titled "Fighting Malaria" to highlight the history of malaria, the challenges in fighting this deadly disease and the necessary partnerships required to roll back the disease, providing a useful tool for raising awareness about the disease.
» Novartis: Drug maker announces 20% average reduction in price of malaria drug
Exxon Mobil
The largest non-pharmaceutical corporate donor to malaria research and development efforts, ExxonMobil has been at the forefront of private sector action against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. ExxonMobil promotes innovative programs which support public health systems, treat malaria-infected pregnant women, train community caregivers and encourage and train citizens to use bed nets.
» ExxonMobil: Preventing Malaria Transmission Outside the Factory Gates
AstraZeneca
In collaboration with the African Medical and Research Foundation and the Uganda Health Ministry, AstraZeneca is improving the delivery of critical healthcare services and the performance of health information management systems throughout Uganda. In Kiboga District, new community health workers are being trained to better prevent, diagnose and treat malaria, as well as HIV/AIDS and TB. In Luwero district, laboratory staff are being trained to diagnose test results more accurately, while elsewhere peer-to-volunteers are demonstrating the correct usage of insecticide-treated bednets.
» AstraZeneca: Strengthening and Expanding Health Care Systems in Uganda
Vestergaard Frandsen
An international company specializing in complex emergency response and disease control products, Vestergaard Frandsen is committed to the concept that it’s possible to make profits with a purpose; that humanitarian responsibility can be successfully integrated as a core business strategy. In partnership with Ghana’s Ministry of Health on Saving Young Lives, an integrated health campaign that includes a strong malaria prevention component, Vestergaard Frandsen provided free bed nets for children two years old and under, ensuring that this highly vulnerable segment of the population can sleep safely at night. Vestergaard Frandsen is also a key partner in GBC’s bed net distribution initiative in Zambia, as well as a sponsor of Roll Back Malaria’s Zambezi Expedition. On World Malaria Day, the company will present its 135 millionth bed net to a child in the pediatric ward at the Livingstone Hospital.
» Vestergaard Frandsen: Humanitarian entrepreneurship fosters good business while saving lives
McKinsey & Company
GBC Member McKinsey & Company and Malaria No More present a compelling business case for rapid scale-up of malaria control programs in Africa in their recently released report issued on behalf of Roll Back Malaria.
Syngenta
A leading international agribusiness, Syngenta, one of GBC’s newest members, produces insecticides and has trained thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa about safe and effective use of mosquito control products. Syngenta also collaborates with the Presidential Malaria Initiative to reduce the number of deaths from malaria by 50 percent in 15 African countries. A member of the Swiss Malaria Group, an alliance of organizations which seeks to intensify the global fight against malaria through the provision of innovative tools, knowledge and financing, Syngenta is particularly committed to raising malaria awareness among the general public and policy-makers, and in so doing to enhance Swiss support of and contributions to organizations fighting malaria.
» Best Practices: More GBC member activities in the fight against malaria
Business Seeks Partners in Fight against Malaria
Cross-sector collaboration including the distribution of life-saving bed nets, providing treatment for infected pregnant women and the development of new diagnostic tools and medications, will be indispensable if we are to eliminate malaria mortality by 2010 – and business pledged its commitment to the cause at a special World Malaria Day event April 25 co-sponsored by GBC, the UN Foundation and NYSE Euronext.
“A child dying every 30 seconds is unacceptable,” said GBC Executive Director John Tedstrom. “We need come together and approach this emergency problem with urgency – the resources are there. The question is whether we have the commitment, energy and drive to make it happen. We can make a huge difference.”
Other speakers urging the need for more alliances that unite businesses, governments, public health groups, philanthropic organizations and individuals against the disease included Peter Robertson, Vice Chairman of Chevron; Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext; Ted Turner, Chairman of the UN Foundation and Rick Reilly, sports columnist and co-creator of the Nothing But Nets Campaign.
Bruce Wilkinson, Chief of Party of the RAPIDS program in Lusaka, Zambia, discusses the preliminary results of last year’s partnership with GBC member companies to distribute nearly 500,000 bed nets in Zambia, and the critical role of business in prevention malaria transmission.
Why partnership with the private sector is crucial to fight against malaria Chikankata success story: Dramatic reduction in childhood malaria Key lessons learned from the RAPIDS bed net distribution program
Cross-sector Mobilization Nets Wins Against Malaria in Zambia
Thousands of Zambian children are being protected against malaria thanks to a unique collaboration integrating the resources and skills of business and government with the distribution networks and grassroots knowledge of community-based health care workers. GBC members teamed up with the Office for the US Global AIDS Coordinator and the President’s Malaria Initiative to provide RAPIDS, a local NGO coalition, with approximately 500,000 long-lasting insecticidal nets that were distributed throughout Zambia. Preliminary estimates of the project’s impact, still being monitored and evaluated, includes:
- An estimated 181,000 children under the age of 5 using the nets, with nearly 1,000 lives saved annually.
- Saving more than $2,000 per month for resources which otherwise have been spent on malaria treatment, which the RAPIDS coalition can now devote to other critical initiatives.
» GBC Leads Partnership to Distribute 500,000 Anti-Malarial Bed Nets in Zambia
» RAPIDS Malaria Initiative: 2007 Final Report (PDF)
Zambezi Expedition Focuses on Africa’s Malaria Epidemic
The Zambezi Expedition is a project of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, which has joined with six southern African nations, non-profit institutions and businesses on the Zambezi Expedition, a compelling 2-month journey down one of the greatest rivers in Africa designed to bring international attention to the plight of malaria-stricken communities. GBC members ExxonMobil, Novartis, Sumitomo Chemical, Vestergaard Frandsen and Coca-Cola are sponsoring this extraordinary public private collaboration.
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GBC Partners in the Fight Against Malaria