Eliminating malaria by 2030: South-East Asia Region Member States reaffirm commitment
Overview
Health ministers, representatives of Member States and development partners from across the WHO South-East Asia Region gathered in New Delhi for a special, high-level meeting on eliminating malaria from the WHO South-East Asia Region by 2030.
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, spoke of a unique opportunity to bequeath a malaria-free Region to future generations, something unimaginable a few decades ago. Commending the political leadership for fostering cross-border collaboration and enabling transition towards malaria elimination, she recognized the role of active community engagement and the ‘indispensable’ support of funding partners. While positively anticipating a malaria-free Region, she also cautioned that rising drug and insecticide resistance could hinder progress.
The meeting built on the success of a highly productive technical meeting on malaria elimination in the Region held 27-28 November, which brought together national malaria programme managers, Director Generals of health of countries in the Region, malaria experts and technical partners from all over the world. The objectives of the meeting were to share lessons learnt from Sri Lanka and Maldives’ success in malaria elimination; to update on strategies to accelerate malaria elimination in high burden areas; to update on progress in countries with the potential to eliminate malaria by 2020; and to identify technical needs and resources to operationalise the Regional Action Plan 2017-2030 Towards 0. Malaria-Free South-East Region.
Three new reports were released at the meeting: a Cross-border collaboration framework, Sri Lanka case study, and the South-East Asia Regional Action Plan 2017-2030 which combines the countries’ plans into a regional joint vision and guides monitoring and evaluation of progress.
Ministerial Declaration on Accelerating and Sustaining Malaria Elimination in the SEAR
Key facts
Significant regional progress
In recent years, the WHO South-East Asia Region has turned the tide in its malaria response. From 2010 to 2015, the regional rates of estimated malaria cases and deaths fell by 54% and 46%, respectively.
As the first countries in the Region to successfully eliminate malaria, Maldives and Sri Lanka shared lessons from their experience, including the path to certification of malaria elimination and maintaining malaria-free status. They attribute their successes, in part, to strong political commitment, robust policies and evidence-based strategies, a deeply committed staff as well as a group of partners, and coordination at every level – including from communities.
India’s Minister of Health and Family Welfare, H.E. Shri J.P. Nadda announced that India should soon surpass its 2020 targets and is steadily moving towards elimination, backed by strong support of the Prime Minister’s Office. However malaria continues to pose challenges particularly in India’s border districts, forests and tribal areas.
Bhutan, Timor-Leste and Nepal are anticipated to be able to eliminate malaria by 2020, and have each made remarkable progress towards malaria elimination, however cross-border transmission remains problematic. The Greater Mekong Subregion has adopted a subregional malaria elimination strategy in response to the multi-drug resistance situation. The remaining countries in the Region with ongoing transmission all have robust national malaria elimination strategies in place and are making steady progress.
Achieving ‘last mile’ elimination
Direct community involvement is considered critical to achieve ‘last mile’ elimination. In a Leadership Discussion on the Global Malaria Situation held 29 November, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh emphasized the crucial role of community engagement in effective diagnosis and treatment, and the importance of programme decentralisation from sub-national to district and village levels.
Dr Pedro Alonso, Director, WHO Global Malaria Programme, further commended the ‘historic’ regional reductions in malaria cases and mortality, but cautioned that globally the decline had reached a plateau. The threat of artemisinin and partner drug resistance requires constant vigilance. WHO Deputy Director-General Designate Dr Soumya Swaminathan underlined the need for greater investments in R&D to address drug and insecticide resistance, newer drug combinations and genetic engineering to modify vector reproductive cycles.
Subsequent to the high-level meeting, a WHO Strategic Advisory Meeting on malaria eradication was held in Delhi from 30 November – 1 December, followed by a meeting on 2 December focusing on research in India on malaria elimination.