Distinguished guests,
Dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon. It’s such a pleasure to welcome you all to WHO and UNAIDS.
For me, today’s forum has special significance.
As many of you know, I started my career as a malaria researcher. Of course, a few months before that I had some experience on schistosomiasis. And my mentor when I was a student at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was Richard Feachem.
I wrote my PhD on the effect of dams and reservoirs on malaria transmission in Ethiopia.
Eradicating malaria has long been a personal dream of mine. Maybe it could be the influence of the mentor again.
And it has been one of the ultimate public health goals for a century. It is also proving to be one of the greatest challenges, as we all know.
That said, we have made incredible progress.
Malaria deaths have fallen by more than half since the year 2000, thanks to the intensive efforts of partners, many of whom are represented here today.
And we have succeeded in eliminating malaria from many parts of the world. By the 1950s, malaria had been eliminated from much of the temperate zone. From that point until now, WHO has certified 38 countries and overseas territories as malaria-free – Algeria and Argentina, as you know, are the latest.
So, if we can make such substantial progress against malaria, can we take the final big step and eradicate this terrible disease? That’s the question.
In fact, WHO has been committed to malaria eradication since at least 1955 – 10 years before I was born – when the first resolution to that effect was passed at the World Health Assembly.
Malaria eradication remains the guiding vision of WHO’s Global Technical Strategy for Malaria.
As recently as May 2017, the WHO Executive Board reaffirmed WHO’s “unequivocal support” for the goal of malaria eradication.
Malaria eradication remains our ultimate goal. But while malaria has been eliminated in many countries, we cannot eradicate it with the tools we have.
As last year’s World Malaria Report highlighted, we are currently off-course to achieve the goals set out in the WHO Global technical strategy for malaria.
In response, WHO and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria last year launched “High burden to high impact.” This is a targeted new approach to accelerate progress in the countries hit hardest by the disease.
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The reports of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group on Malaria Eradication and the Lancet Commission contain valuable insights and recommendations for reinvigorating the fight against malaria.
I thank both groups for their hard work and commitment.
Both aspire to a malaria-free world.
Both recognize the urgent need to intensify our efforts to reduce the misery inflicted by a disease that kills more than 400 000 people and more than 200 million cases each year.
Both groups express grave concern over recent trends in global malaria cases and deaths, which have remained virtually unchanged since 2015.
And both point out that efforts to eliminate – and ultimately eradicate – malaria would pay a massive return on investment.
Scaling up coverage of effective malaria control tools in the 29 highest-burden countries would yield an estimated gain in Gross Domestic Product of 283 billion U.S. dollars – which is eight times more than the associated costs of 35 billion dollars.
Our fight against malaria is therefore not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.
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The Lancet Commission makes a bold call for eradicating malaria by 2050. I would be thrilled to see this global scourge eradicated even earlier.
But like the Strategic Advisory Group, the Lancet Commission acknowledges that we will not achieve that goal with the tools we have.
So the question is, how do we take forward the recommendations of both groups to move us closer to a malaria-free world?
I believe we need at least four key ingredients:
First, as with smallpox and polio, we need increased investment in research and development to deliver new tools.
We must take a hard look at the R&D pipeline.
There are some promising products emerging, including new diagnostics, medications, insecticides and vector control approaches, and passive immunization therapies such as monoclonal antibodies.
And the world’s first malaria vaccine, RTS,S, is now being deployed in a pilot roll-out in three African countries.
But there is no silver bullet for malaria. We need a package of tools that can permanently reduce transmission to zero and wipe out the reservoir of malaria parasites in humans.
The Malaria Eradication Research Agenda provides a useful starting point to guide R&D investment to develop these transformative tools.
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Second, we need more resources, but we also need to use them more effectively.
The Lancet Commission has called for $2 billion for the malaria response, and I think we can all agree that we would love to see that sort of money invested in the fight against malaria.
Some of those resources must be raised domestically. The recent Addis Ababa Call to Action is a powerful commitment from African Union leaders to mobilize domestic resources for health.
But as we know, we cannot rely solely on domestic resources, especially for many of the highest-burden countries in Africa that need support.
That’s why the Global Fund replenishment is a vital moment for mobilizing resources for malaria.
But at the same time, we must do better with the resources we have.
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Third and most importantly, we need to strengthen health systems to ensure that all those at risk of malaria can access the services they need to prevent, diagnose and treat it, without suffering financial hardship.
That’s why universal health coverage, based on strong primary health care, is the foundation for ridding the world of malaria.
Finally, we must hold ourselves accountable for results.
The Sustainable Development Goals, and WHO’s General Programme of Work are both based on delivering a measurable impact in the lives of the people we serve.
WHO is changing to be more focused on delivering that impact where it matters most, which is at country level.
In the case of malaria, we must focus especially on the “10 plus 1” countries with the highest burden.
To do that, we need to have our people on the ground, where the needs are greatest.
That’s why we have decided staff from headquarters, including the Director of WHO’s Global Malaria Programme, Dr Pedro Alonso, will be temporarily stationed in Brazzaville and Kinshasa to lead WHO’s efforts to reinvigorate the malaria response.
WHO is committed to leading the global effort to make malaria history.
But it’s not a job for WHO alone.
Today I am issuing a challenge to the global health community. The goal of eradicating malaria is supremely ambitious. But true progress only happens when we set goals that we think are out of reach.
Together, we must rise to the challenge of stimulating new R&D.
We must rise to the challenge of mobilizing resources.
We must rise to the challenge of achieving universal health coverage.
If we do, we can deliver the world we all dream of – a world free of malaria.
Thank you so much.