AMFm and PMI's Commitment to Global Efforts to Ensure Prompt Malaria Diagnosis and Treatment

28 Sep 2012
President’s Malaria Initiative The President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) is committed to ensuring that all persons with malaria are promptly diagnosed and treated with a safe and efficacious antimalarial drug. In sub-Saharan Africa, children under five in impoverished, rural areas are at the greatest risk of dying from malaria and are the focus of PMI's efforts.

Since a large proportion of patients with malaria are treated within the private sector, improving the quality of malaria treatment through private pharmacies and drug shops is critical. PMI is committed to working with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM), and other partners to support evidence-based strategies to introduce malaria diagnostics, treatment, and referral support for suspected severe febrile cases in children in the private sector, when endorsed by national malaria control programs.

One approach to improving the quality of malaria case management in the private sector is the Affordable Medicines Facility - malaria (AMFm), an innovative financing mechanism designed to save lives and delay the onset of resistance to artemisinin by expanding access to affordable artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) for malaria through the public, private, and NGO sectors. This is done through a factory-gate subsidy for ACTs that will reduce the price for local buyers and pass on those savings to the patient. The AMFm is hosted by the Global Fund and was launched in nine African countries in 2009. The results of an Independent Evaluation of AMFm's first phase were released in July 2012. At the upcoming November 2012 Global Fund Board meeting, members will be asked to vote on options for the next phase of the AMFm.

Full statement available at http://www.pmi.gov/news/pressreleases/amfm_stmt.html