AFRICA – Vitality Health International, owned by Discovery group, has announced a partnership with social benefit organisation, Goodbye Malaria, to reduce the high incidence of malaria that is taking an unrelenting toll on human health in Africa.
This partnership will have a strategic focus in the fight against malaria with the aim to potentially eradicate this deadly, yet preventable, disease in years to come.
The partnership between Vitality Health International and Goodbye Malaria underpins this year’s World Malaria Day theme: time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, and implement.
“Malaria remains the most prevalent disease in Africa with a major impact on the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable with US$12 billion lost in productivity every year,” said Emma Knox, chief executive officer of Africa’s Vitality Health International.
“By partnering with Goodbye Malaria, we are taking a significant step towards positively impacting people’s health outcomes while improving and protecting their lives. We believe that by working together, we can reduce the negative impact of malaria and save many lives on the continent.”
Sherwin Charles, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Goodbye Malaria said: “We are honoured to collaborate with Vitality Health International in our mission to eliminate malaria. Over the past 10 years, Goodbye Malaria has made significant impact in efforts to bring an end to this devastating disease.
“In partnership with Vitality Health International, we can further amplify our efforts, reach more people in need and together, accelerate us in getting to zero. Making malaria part of our history, once and for all.”
Goodbye Malaria has already made significant strides in the fight against malaria. Last year alone, it impacted the lives of more than 4.2 million people in the Mosaswa region through its multi-vector malaria control campaign, including indoor residual spray campaigns across 22 districts in southern Mozambique as well as eight mobile surveillance units that operate on the borders of South Africa.
“There is no reason why malaria – a disease that is completely treatable and preventable – should continue to take millions of lives, especially children on our continent. Malaria has been eradicated in other parts of the world and it should be eradicated in Africa in our lifetime,” Vitality Health International’s Emma Knox added.
“We look forward to sharing further news soon to provide concrete actionable steps that we will be taking together with Goodbye Malaria to make a real difference in the prevention, treatment, and ultimately the eradication of malaria.”
Maintaining malaria programmes, scaling up the latest innovations and reaching everyone living at risk are the main objectives of this partnership.
A number of the countries in which Vitality Health International operates have a high incidence of malaria such as Kenya, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Mozambique. The Goodbye Malaria partnership will have a focused implementation on the African continent.
Over recent decades there has been progress in combatting malaria and although there has been a reduction of incidence in the last 10 years, malaria progress had plateaued in 2017. The sudden spike in malaria incidence may be attributed to climate change extending rainy and humid seasons which provide ideal breeding conditions for malaria mosquitoes.
In Southern Africa alone, over the last 10 years, Goodbye Malaria has committed R270m (US$15m) to the fight against malaria in Mozambique, South Africa and Eswatini (known as the Mosaswa region).
Africa continues to carry a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. According to the 2022 WHO World Malaria report the region had 95% (234 million) of malaria cases and 96% (593,000) of malaria deaths. Eighty percent (80%) of these annual deaths are sadly those of children under the age of five.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022), published a summary of results in which they estimate that one-fifth of the world’s population will reside in Africa by 2050, which makes this year’s World Malaria Day theme: time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, and implement, even more important.
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