Mali

Malaria prevention and control is a major foreign assistance objective of the U.S. Government. In May 2009, President Barack Obama announced the Global Health Initiative, a comprehensive effort to reduce the burden of disease and promote healthy communities and families around the world. Through the Global Health Initiative, the United States will help partner countries improve health outcomes, with a particular focus on improving the health of women, newborns, and children. The President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) is a core component of the Global Health Initiative, along with family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. PMI was launched in June 2005 as a 5-year, $1.2 billion initiative to rapidly scale up malaria prevention and treatment interventions and reduce malaria-related mortality by 50% in 15 high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa. With passage of the 2008 Lantos-Hyde Act, funding for PMI was extended PMI began supporting activities in Mali in 2007 in close collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) as well as international and national partners. With the coup d' tat of March 22, 2012, in which the democratically elected president was overthrown by the military, the U.S. Government and many other donors suspended foreign aid to the Government of Mali until a democratic solution to the political crisis could be achieved. For PMI, this meant suspending all assistance and funding to the NMCP and other Ministry of Health (MOH) entities. The U.S. Department of State authorized some PMI activities on humanitarian grounds, such as procurement and distribution of essential malaria commodities; however, the bulk of PMI projects were temporarily suspended. Following intervention by the Economic Community of West African States and the international community, Malians agreed on a consensual transitional government currently in place. In late July/early August 2013, the people of Mali democratically elected a new president who was sworn in on September 4, 2013. As a result, the U.S. Government lifted all restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance to Mali and authorized immediate return to normal bilateral relations with the Government of Mali, including direct support to the MOH. Malaria is the primary cause of morbidity and mortality in Mali, particularly among children under five years of age. The disease is endemic to the central and southern regions (where over 90% of Mali's population lives), and considered epidemic in the north. In 2013, the national health management information system (Syst me Local d'Information Sanitaire SLIS]), reported 2.3 million clinical cases of malaria in health facilities and 1680 fatal malaria cases. There has also been an increase in the number of suspected cases that were confirmed by laboratory means, from 52% in 2012 to 80% in 2013. However, given the inherent difficulties with the health information system, the SLIS data should be viewed with caution.