Counting malaria out
In 2008 the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership unveiled the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP), which clearly sets out what needs to be done to meet the short, medium and long term goals of malaria control, elimination and eventual eradication.
On World Malaria Day, the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership will kick-start its "Counting malaria out" campaign. This 2-year campaign will intensify global efforts to reach the first important malaria milestone by 2010 and to strenghen systems in endemic countries for the long haul of sustained malaria control and elimination.
The "Counting Malaria Out" campaign calls on malaria endemic countries, RBM partners and donors to put extra efforts into comprehensively tracking progress along the way to universal coverage by 2010, near-zero deaths by 2015 and the gradual elimination of malaria.
To be able to successfully combat malaria, countries and their international partners need to strengthen systems for collecting data at district, national, regional and global levels. Reliable data-collection, sound data analysis and effective data communication enable an informed and efficient response to malaria and are critical to the long-term success of the global malaria control effort.
We need to monitor challenges that may impede the implementation of the GMAP. We need to keep track of the new initiatives and solutions that are being put in place. We need to be able to tell where exactly we are at in the areas of development, production and delivery of nets and treatments, building malaria control capacity, committing funds and resources for scale-up of interventions, monitoring malaria cases, or informing, educating and mobilizing communities to act against malaria.
Help count the strides we collectively make towards eliminating malaria. Make the lives of every man, woman and child count.
Original Source: http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/worldmal ... tdown.html
