April 25, 2010, marks the third annual World Malaria Day, a day set aside to call attention to malaria and to mobilize action to combat it. The U.S. Government, on behalf of the American people, has taken extraordinary steps to curb the spread of this preventable and curable disease. Since 2006, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) has helped 15 high-burden countries in Africa dramatically scale up effective malaria prevention and treatment interventions; during 2009 alone, PMI reached more than 50 million people. Many of the countries where PMI has been working have reported significant reductions in deaths in children under the age of five. There is strong and growing evidence that malaria prevention and control are a major factor in these reductions.
