Program to Build on Successes Made by Ethiopia against Ancient Killer
NOVEMBER 12, 2009 Addis Ababa (U.S. Embassy) – The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), today announced a three-year, $40 million grant to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to assist the Government of Ethiopia's Federal Ministry of Health and the Oromia Regional Health Bureau deliver appropriate malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services.
The program, called "Sustaining Malaria Reduction Interventions in Oromia," will increase access to effective diagnostic tests and medicines to manage malaria cases and promote household ownership and proper use of insecticide-treated bednets. Through UNICEF, USAID will procure and distribute 3.7 million rapid diagnostic tests for use by health staff and health extension workers; distribute 9.4 million treatments of medicines to fully treat confirmed malaria infections in Oromia; and procure and distribute 3.9 million bednets and support the distribution of nets from other sources such as the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), the World Bank, The Carter Center and other partners.
"Ethiopia is making great progress in scaling up malaria prevention and control interventions," said USAID/Ethiopia Mission Director Thomas H. Staal. "The key to saving lives is to expand proven approaches and interventions until they reach people at risk of the disease."
Ethiopia is one of the focus countries under the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) (http://www.pmi.gov), an initiative which aims to reduce by half the number of malaria deaths in 15 African countries using proven malaria interventions. PMI is a collaborative U.S. Government effort led by USAID, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the Department of State, and others.
U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, Ethiopian Health Minister H.E. Dr. Tedros Adhanom, and U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Ambassador Roger Meece witnessed the grant agreement signed today between USAID/Ethiopia and UNICEF.
Activities supported by PMI in Ethiopia primarily focus on Oromia Regional State, the country's largest administrative regional state and the regional state bearing the brunt of the country's malaria burden.
