Tanzania

Malaria prevention and control are major foreign assistance objectives of the U.S. Government (USG). In May 2009, President Barack Obama announced the Global Health Initiative (GHI), a comprehensive effort to reduce the burden of disease and promote healthy communities and families around the world. Through the GHI, 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 (GHI), along with 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 has now been extended and, as part of the GHI, the goal of PMI has been adjusted to reduce malaria-related mortality by 70% in the original 15 countries by the end of 2015. This will be achieved by continuing to scale up coverage of the most vulnerable groups - children under five years of age and pregnant women - with proven preventive and therapeutic interventions, including artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), intermittent preventive treatment of pregnant women (IPTp), and indoor residual spraying (IRS). In June 2005, the United States Government (USG) selected the United Republic of Tanzania (including the Mainland and Zanzibar) as one of the first of three countries to be included in PMI. Malaria is a major public health problem in Tanzania. Although dramatic progress in malaria control has been made in recent years with support from PMI and other partners with the scale-up of malaria prevention and treatment interventions, nearly all 42 million residents on the Mainland and all 1.3 million persons in Zanzibar are still at risk of infection. This FY 2015 Malaria Operational Plan presents a detailed implementation plan for Tanzania, based on the USG malaria strategy and the National Malaria Control Program's (NMCP's) and the Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Program's (ZAMEP) strategy. It was developed in consultation with the NMCP and the ZAMEP and with the participation of national and international partners involved in malaria prevention and control in the country. The activities that PMI is proposing to support fit in well with the National Malaria Control Strategy and Plan and build on investments made by PMI and other partners to improve and expand malaria-related services, including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund) malaria grants. This document briefly reviews the current status of malaria control policies and interventions in Tanzania, describes progress to date, identifies challenges and unmet needs to achieving the targets of the NMCP and PMI, and provides a description of planned FY 2015 activities.