Transcript of WHO podcast - 22 September 2008

The World malaria report 2008 - published recently - finds that progress in malaria control has accelerated since 2006. In this episode, we look at the main findings of the report and their implications.

Veronica Riemer: You’re listening to the WHO podcast. My name is Veronica Riemer and this is episode 47.

The World malaria report 2008 - published recently - finds that progress in malaria control has accelerated since 2006. In this episode, we look at the main findings of the report and their implications.

The global burden of malaria remains enormous, but a new report released by WHO finds that progress in malaria control has accelerated since 2006.

The World malaria report 2008 describes the global distribution of cases and deaths. It also provides details of funding sources for malaria control and recent evidence that prevention and treatment can alleviate the burden of disease.

The report was launched in Geneva where Director-General Dr Margaret Chan spoke to journalists.

Dr Margaret Chan: In just the past few years, the world has woken up to malaria in a way that has not been seen for decades. We have seen a striking turnaround in the prospects for malaria control. Commitment to act is very high within the international community, but also within hard-hit countries. Funds are flowing in from international partners, donors, foundations, and funding agencies, but also from the domestic budgets of affected countries.

Money is being used to purchase powerful interventions: insecticide-treated bed nets that remain effective for at least three years, ACT medicines, the newest and best-yet class of drugs for treatment. More money is also being invested in research to develop better control tools, including a vaccine.

This is what I call the billion-dollar moment for a centuries old disease.

Veronica Riemer: Dr Mac Otten from the WHO's Global Malaria Programme talked to us about some of the report's main findings.

Dr Mac Otten: There are two main findings: one is that we found that monies have increased to purchase nets, and these new medicines, and do indoor spraying. And we are finding from survey information that these nets ended up in villages, in households, protecting families, children sleeping under the nets, parents sleeping under the nets as well.

We found for the first time that three African countries were able to show that malaria cases, especially severe cases and deaths, in the health facilities, have declined by more than 50% in a very short period of time, after they reached high coverage with the nets and these new medicines and the indoor spraying.

Veronica Riemer: The report says that 27 countries - 22 of them outside Africa - have significantly reduced malaria cases over the last five or six years. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership coordinates the global efforts to control malaria. The partnership was set up in 1998 by WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank. Dr Awa Coll-Seck, the Executive Director of the Partnership, spoke to us about the implications of the report.

Dr Awa Coll-Seck: This report reminds us how we need to strengthen country-level information systems to be able to collect data in a timely fashion. And improve surveillance at country level. We need more information, we need it quicker, we need it to be accurate. We need to invest more in monitoring and evaluation. This is a call to the donor community to support also WHO more in this role and the countries to be able to have a strong information system.

Veronica Riemer: The World malaria report 2008 shows the status of malaria control at the end of 2006, but it also highlights a very encouraging trend: that malaria control is moving in the right direction.

That's all for this episode of the WHO podcast. Thanks for listening.

If you have any comments on our podcast or have any suggestions for future health topics do drop us a line. Our email address is Podcast@who.int.

For the World Health Organization, this is Veronica Riemer in Geneva.