US Aid Cuts Come at Deadly Moment for Malaria Control

AFP/APP

Nairobi: The sudden freezing of US aid to malaria projects comes at a critical moment as deadly new variants are spreading in Africa, posing a devastating impact, according to the head of a major NGO.

The US government has provided approximately 40 percent of the annual global funding for malaria control and research, supporting efforts against a disease responsible for over 600,000 deaths and 250 million cases each year—most of them in Africa.

That funding, which amounts to up to $1 billion annually, has now been frozen as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to cut foreign aid.

“We did try to anticipate in advance of this, but I think even our worst-case scenarios have been surpassed,” said James Tibenderana, Chief Executive of the London-based Malaria Consortium, which operates projects worldwide.

The Malaria Consortium has already been forced to lay off staff working on a programme in Mozambique and suspend a programme in Asia focused on training individuals to monitor and control mosquitoes.

Although only five percent of its funding comes from the US government, Tibenderana stressed that US aid cuts would severely impact the entire sector.

“It’s just so disruptive, so sudden,” he stated, emphasizing that the cuts coincide with the emergence of drug- and insecticide-resistant malaria strains.

“The clock is ticking for drug resistance in Africa,” he warned.

The early signs of resistance to artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) the primary treatment for malaria are beginning to appear, raising serious concerns about future malaria control efforts.