NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, BETHESDA, MD - Malaria kills 2.7 million people each year, according to the most recent estimates, and is responsible for enormous economic burdens in malaria-endemic regions. Ninety percent of those who die of malaria are African children under the age of 5. Over 1.5 billion new infections occur annually. Unfortunately, these numbers are on the rise due to insecticide resistance, antimalarial drug resistance, and environmental changes. Unless new strategies are developed, death and illness due to malaria will increase, and the disease will continue to be a substantial barrier to the economic and social development of malaria-endemic regions and a threat to the millions of people who travel to those regions each year.
In 1997, an international alliance of research and public health agencies and African scientists launched the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM). MIM is stimulating collaborative research to answer the needs of public health programs in malaria-endemic countries, modernizing communication systems used by the African research community, and strengthening research capacity and human resources where malaria takes its greatest toll - sub-Saharan Africa. MIM supports 23 collaborative malaria research projects between African laboratories that are also in partnership with laboratories in Europe and the United States. Detailed information about MIM, its partners, and activities is available on the MIM website at http://mim.nih.gov.
April 25, 2001 is the first-ever Africa Malaria Day. Today, MIM is announcing two international conferences on malaria. MIM will hold the Third MIM Pan-African Conference on Malaria from November 18 to 22, 2002, in Arusha, Tanzania. This conference will bring together malaria researchers who battle Plasmodium falciparum malaria, which causes the most severe illness and which is the dominant form of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. In additio
'"/>
Contact: Jennifer Cabe
jennifercabe@nih.gov
301-496-2075
NIH/Fogarty International Center
24-Apr-2001