Frontline health workers are leading a heroic effort
to continue to fight malaria in the face of COVID-19.
A year ago, many people feared that
COVID-19 lockdowns and supply disruptions
would double the number of malaria deaths in Africa.
So far, we've avoided that worst case scenario,
thanks to African countries
that quickly adapted their malaria programs
to work safely during the pandemic.
Malaria resources have been redirected
to help control the spread of COVID-19.
In Zambia, the national malaria elimination program’s
genomic surveillance laboratory
switched to find COVID-19 variants
circulating in the country.
And in Mozambique,
the application created for health workers
was switched to supply critical data
for the COVID-19 response.
Despite this progress,
the work is not over.
Malaria is still killing
more than 400,000 children every year.
The pandemic reminds us
why eradicating malaria is so important.
Many of the building blocks
we need to fight malaria and prevent
the next pandemic are the same:
accurate data, reliable supply chains
and resources that focus
on the needs of the poorest countries.
Malaria programs help build stronger health systems
that will not only bring an end to malaria,
but protect us from the next pandemic.
And that means a much healthier,
safer world for everyone.