Le Fonds mondial et Unitaid luttent contre la résistance aux insecticides avec des nouveaux types de moustiquaires imprégnées d’insecticide
Geneva – The Global Fund and Unitaid are jointly investing in new versions of insecticide-treated nets to fight malaria-carrying mosquitoes that have become resistant to older insecticides. The project aims to show that the nets can provide a stronger line of defence against malaria for millions of people.
The New Nets Project, approved this month by Unitaid’s Executive Board, will pilot long-lasting insecticidal nets treated with new insecticide combinations in sub-Saharan African countries hardest hit by malaria.
The Global Fund and Unitaid will each contribute US$33 million to the four-year project. A coalition led by the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) is carrying out the 2018-2022 project.
The project will build the evidence needed to allow WHO to consider making new policy for the use of these nets and will also assess their cost-effectiveness under pilot conditions.
The production volumes procured for the pilots will help the project to negotiate significant price reductions. These reductions are needed to make the new nets a sustainable choice for countries looking for the best value for money in controlling malaria.
“Working with partners such as the Global Fund, we can leverage the effect of our innovations, such as new insecticides and new insecticide-treated nets,” said Unitaid’s Executive Director Lelio Marmora. “Together we can make a powerful impact against malaria.”
Mosquito nets provide a physical barrier against mosquitoes, and treating the nets with insecticide makes them lethal for mosquitoes that land on them. One of the most effective means of preventing malaria is sleeping under a long-lasting insecticidal net.
Mosquitoes’ resistance to insecticides threatens to undermine progress against malaria. Although the number of new malaria cases has fallen dramatically over the past 15 years, progress has recently stalled. According to the World Health Organization, there were 216 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2016, 5 million more cases than the year before.
A child dies of malaria every two minutes, although the disease is preventable and curable.
“By investing in insecticide-treated nets and other tools, the Global Fund partnership has greatly reduced the burden of malaria,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “This project is a step toward accelerating impact by embracing innovation – with the ultimate goal of malaria elimination.”
Nick Hamon, CEO of IVCC added; “The continued success and impact on lives saved of the NGenIRS project means that IVCC is well positioned, with its project partners, to demonstrate the public health value of new dual active ingredient bed nets and deliver radically new solutions to combat the growing threat of insecticide resistance which is prevalent across malaria endemic countries.
The New Nets Project will support the WHO’s malaria goals, which aim by 2030 to reduce malaria cases and deaths by 90 percent, eliminate the disease in at least 35 countries and prevent a resurgence in countries that are malaria-free.
IVCC is leading another Unitaid-funded initiative, the US$65 million NgenIRS project, which is ushering in new long-lasting indoor residual insecticide sprays to replace less-effective older chemistries and formulations. Unitaid’s work against malaria extends to the Asia Pacific Region, where it is collaborating with the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) on the Vector Control Platform for Asia Pacific (VCAP), a collaborative platform to improve access to new vector control tools.
End of Project Evaluation of the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) project on sustainable Global and National Quality Control for Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs)
Augmenter l’offre de médicaments contre le paludisme
Unitaid s’associe à APLMA en vue d’éliminer le paludisme dans la région Asie-Pacifique d’ici à 2030
Melbourne — The Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) and Unitaid today launched a collaborative platform to accelerate access to innovations to halt the spread of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases in the Asia Pacific region. Malaria continues to be a global health threat, killing 445,000 people a year.
The new platform, known as the Vector Control Platform for Asia Pacific (VCAP), links national regulators, policy-makers, industry, academia and the global health community to boost development and use of antimalarial tools, such as mosquito nets and insecticides.
Effectively controlling mosquitoes is essential to preventing the diseases they spread and is a critical element of improving regional health security. Achieving the 2030 goal of eliminating malaria throughout Asia and the Pacific will depend on development of new ‘vector control’ tools and ensuring their widespread access.
“We need new tools to stop mosquitoes, but small markets and slow bureaucracies are instead killing innovation”, said Dr Ben Rolfe, CEO of the APLMA Secretariat. “It’s simple. We won’t eliminate malaria unless we get new recommended technologies to market fast and this is the gap that the new vector control platform is looking to fill.”
The knowledge-sharing platform is one of the first initiatives under a new Unitaid/APLMA collaboration aimed at driving regional progress towards malaria elimination. The partnership links the two organizations with other malaria control stakeholders, through co-hosting specific events and identifying opportunities to support governments, donors and other partners.
The new platform was announced during the 1st Malaria World Congress taking place this week in Melbourne. The backdrop for the meeting was a 2017 World Health Organization (WHO) report showing that although the rate of new malaria cases has fallen dramatically over the past 15 years, progress has recently stalled. In 2016, there were 5 million more cases of malaria worldwide than in 2015, bringing the total number of malaria cases to 216 million.
“The launch of this new platform comes at the right time as Unitaid expands its investment portfolio in vector control,” said Lelio Marmora, Unitaid Executive Director. “Even though insecticide-treated bednets and indoor sprays have been effective in preventing malaria to date, the reality is that we need new tools to address the emergence of insecticide and drug resistance if we are going to make headway in ending malaria.”
Global health experts describe malaria as having arrived “at a tipping point” where strong action and funding is needed to push it toward elimination.
Unitaid’s malaria investments are expected to reach US$ 300 million by end 2018, a doubling since 2015, and will expand to US$ 450 million by 2020. A large proportion of the projects focus on targeting high-risk populations in low-income, high transmission settings, primarily focusing on children under five and pregnant women.
Recently completed Unitaid-funded projects have made notable contributions against malaria. The Improving Severe Malaria Outcomes project, implemented by Medicines for Malaria Venture, amplified the use of injectable artesunate, a cutting-edge, lifesaving treatment for severe malaria in children, at a more affordable price. Based on current projections, injectable artesunate could save an additional 66,000 children’s lives each year by 2021. According to WHO, malaria kills one child every two minutes.
Media contacts
Unitaid – Dominique De Santis, desantisd@who.int, portable : +41789115327
APLMA – Tim France, tfrance@aplma.org, portable : +447739390542 ; Patrik Silborn, psilborn@aplma.org, portable : +6584113061
The Hummingbird. Unitaid News – June 2018. (en anglais seulement)
