African Union’s new campaign against Malaria

Non-Aligned Movement has shown serious concern over the global threats caused by health epidemics that threaten public health and security simultaneously affecting the economies of the nations destructively in parallel. The foundation has called on the Member States to contemplate the issue and motivate and initiate efforts to curb and back-pedal the serious threats posed by these epidemics.

NAM concedes malaria under the category of the health epidemics and has asked the Member States to intensify their efforts at all levels to challenge and battle the menace that had affected many lives in the past and is still continuing.

Malaria turned out to be the world’s deadliest disease that puts a large population of Africa at risk every year. After years of steady decline in the population along with the economies of the nation, the threat of the epidemic is still penetrating in the environs of Africa. To curb the ill-effects of the hazard, African Union (AU) is committed to reinforce and strengthen a people – centred Union through the active communication of the projects of the Union. The member states have begun for the implementation of the health strategies outlined by the AU to bolster health systems and achieve universal coverage with a toolkit supporting the multifaceted malaria campaign planning.

Since its launch in Senegal in 2014, the “Zero Malaria starts with Me’ – a national campaign initiated to eliminate malaria has been a representation of success. The campaign introduced by the leaders of the African Union, now in its current year of heightened success, holds enough efforts to go beyond the borders of Senegal and increase awareness in the population at all levels and engaging the private sector with its innovative and comprehensive approach to prioritise malaria elimination at the highest levels of government to neighbouring countries across the African continent with the alliance of the African Union Commission and Roll-Back Malaria (RBM) Partnershipcur.

Along with its member states and other nations across the continent, the RBM Partnership works closely with the AU Commission on developing the campaign. Over the passing years and with the dedicated global efforts to fight the epidemic, there have been signs signalling a fall in number of cases of malaria. African leaders have made commitments to encounter the 2020 milestones of lessening the burden of malaria by 40% while they have also indicated their collective political urge to make Africa malaria free as a part of agenda 2063 for which they have been initiating concerted efforts.
With the serious and collaborated efforts of more than 500 members of the RBM Partnership, AU and World Health Organisation (WHO) an organisation named PATH stands to support the country-led plan to move towards world free form malaria. New tools with their keen efforts have paved way for new horizons in malaria elimination programme.

The RTS,S vaccine serves to be a promising option. With the greatest efforts needed to curb the epidemic, PATH has collaborated with pharmaceutical companies for the development of this specialised vaccine. Now efforts have also been initiated and the continent is heading towards an important phase with the pilot introduction, coordinated by WHO in alliance with country programs, PATH and many other institutions. Along with this PATH is providing with the technical support too to make the “Zero Malaria Starts with Me” campaign a huge success.

The epidemic in the African continent and across the world can be brought to an end with the strong commitments that hold potential to turn the tide back towards the global goal. The battle against it needs a renewed robust. When it comes to curbing the hazardous disease, the normal course of action lies somewhere behind the scenes. Better data, closer and strong coordination among partners on the front foot along with new and improved tools and techniques will prove to be of great help to countering emerging resistance and threats.

Non-Aligned Movement with its foundational efforts has supported Member States, motivating and initiating efforts of theirs to fight the problems that hinder the growth of the economies. With such efforts, African Union along with its key supporters WHO, PATH and RBM Partnership has shown confidence and deep determination to turn Africa towards a world free from malaria.