July/August 2004

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

US Impedes Malaria Treatment; Dooms Thousands

Emma Miller is a student at Colby College and an intern at Peacework Magazine. Peacework intern Hannah Zwirner conducted research for this article.

There are 1 to 2 million people who are, as you read this, experiencing convulsions, fever, joint pain, headaches, vomiting, malnutrition, and anemia as a result of one disease. Every thirty seconds a child in Africa will die suffering these symptoms, not from a new incurable disease, but from a well known treatable disease: malaria.

Malaria kills over one million people a year. Additionally, Doctors Without Borders explains, "where malaria thrives, people suffer and economies are drained. Malaria, a parasitic disease, thwarts children's cognitive development and education, and adults' ability to make a living and care for their family.... Malaria keeps the poor people poorer."

In 1998, the World Health Organization (WHO) created a program called Roll Back Malaria with the help of the United Nations Development Program, UNICEF, and the World Bank. The campaign aims to halve the deaths caused by malaria by 2010. This goal was reiterated and supported by world leaders at the 2000 G8 Summit in Okinawa. Since then, however, cases of malaria have been on the rise. Increasing parasite resistance has rendered the commonly used antimalarial drug, chloroquine, virtually useless in most of Sub Saharan Africa. Chloroquine is still the most commonly used drug to treat Malaria even though Doctors Without Borders reports that "hospital studies in various African countries have documented a two to three- fold increase in malaria deaths and hospital admissions for severe malaria, corresponding to the rise in chloroquine resistance."

There is new-found potential in the success of a drug that consists of extracts from highly potent Chinese herbs, known as artemisinin derivatives. Although this drug is new to the international community, people in Asia have used it for centuries with no documented negative side affects. Some countries in Africa have begun the switch over to artemisinin-based combination treatment. The WHO announcement claims that "in 2001, when the South African province KwaZulu Natal changed to artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT) and introduced prevention measures, malaria deaths were reduced by 87% compared to 2000."

Yet, despite such promising results, governments such as the United States, objecting to its cost, are pressuring the World Health Organization to decrease production and end funding for ACT. The British Medical Journal, The Lancet, called this obstructionist approach, quite simply, malpractice.

The cost of the Artemisinin-based combination is an estimated $1.50 per adult treatment compared with the $.10 per adult chloroquine treatment. Although ACT is currently more expensive, if mass production of ACT was stimulated, the price would drop.

Additionally, if research was funded, cheaper ACT or alternatives could be developed. MassiveEffort.org, a network of nonprofits working to stop HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, points to the paucity of research funding dedicated to stopping malaria. "Currently less than 20 cents per case is spent on malaria research and development, compared to hundreds of dollars per case spent on diseases of the developed world."

Even at the higher price, A 2002 report from Doctors Without Borders shows that implementing the more effective ACT combinations in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, would cost only $19 million.

The $19 million price tag for saving tens of thousands of lives wouldn't make a dent in the $379.9 billion budget for the United States military, or even in the $19.3 billion nuclear weapons line item. Shouldn't we spend money to save lives, not destroy them?

Letters of protest to donor countries and pharmaceutical companies can be sent through http://massiveeffort.org/html/africa_malaria_day_--_2004.html

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