Partnership to roll back malaria accused of failing

An international partnership of more than 90 organisations and countries to reduce global deaths from Malaria has failed to control the disease and may have done more harm than good, The Lancet medical journal said on Friday.

The Roll Back Malaria partnership (RBM), which includes the World Health Organisation and World Bank, was set up seven years ago to coordinate the fight against a disease that kills more than a million people each year - most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Lancet said the RBM was ineffective and that rates of infection and deaths from the disease had actually risen since it pledged to cut them at a summit in Abuja, Nigeria in 2000.

"Five years on from the Abuja Summit, it is clear that not only has RBM failed in its aims, but it may also have caused harm," the journal said in an editorial ahead of Africa Malaria Day on April 25.

Fifty-three African heads of state pledged in the Abuja Declaration of 2000 to halve malaria mortality by 2010. But according to the journal Africa's malaria rates are climbing.

"In the 7 years since its inception, Malaria rates have increased and the organisation has accumulated an expansive list of missed opportunities and dismal failures," the journal said.

"The 2010 target to halve malaria deaths now looks unreachable," it added.

Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, the executive secretary of the RBM, described the editorial as unfair but admitted much work remains to be done.

"I didn't see anything in the article showing people are failing," she said in an interview.

"We need more financial support for countries, more technical support and help for capacity building. We have a lot of things to do but really, things are moving."

The World Malaria report, which will give details on the battle against Malaria, is due to be released in May.

Malaria, which is transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito, occurs in more than 100 countries. The WHO estimates that the global incidence of the disease was 273 million cases in 1998 with 90 percent of cases in Africa.

The Lancet called for strong leadership of the RBM and a commitment from all its partners to make malaria a priority.

In two studies in the journal, French and British researchers showed that combining the drugs artemether and lumefantrine is the most effective treatment in areas of Africa where resistance to the standard malaria drugs is a problem.

But Dr. Theonest Mutabingwa, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Britain, said the drug combination is too expensive for African countries.

"The cost of the drug means that it is likely to reach only a fraction of those who need it, unless the price is substantially reduced either through market mechanisms or, more realistically, through subsidy," he said.