The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) strongly commends the action taken by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Inspector General and local authorities in Guinea to stop the theft of U.S. Government‐funded antimalarial commodities, intended to be provided free of charge in Ministry of Health public health facilities, but instead found for unlawful resale in Conakry’s public marketplaces [PDF, 156KB].
U.S.-funded artemisinin-based combination therapies, fast-acting medicines to cure malaria, form one of the major cornerstones of PMI and the global community’s malaria control efforts.
Prompt, effective case management is a crucial component of reducing malaria illness and death. PMI supports universal access to diagnostic testing and effective treatment of malaria without delay for people with confirmed malaria across all focus countries.
PMI provides medicines through public sector supply channels free of charge. But, public sector supply chains in Africa are particularly vulnerable to theft or loss, due to weaker systems of distribution, inventory, internal controls, and management information systems.
PMI will continue to safeguard life-saving medicines to cure people with malaria by working with local health and law enforcement authorities and partners to improve the accountability, transparency, and performance of partner country supply chains and by strengthening oversight to ensure the safe delivery of drugs to cure people with malaria.
PMI will remain vigilant in our efforts to identify and combat the theft of medicines, referring information to the USAID Office of the Inspector General and other law enforcement officials.
Although the number of children killed by malaria has declined by two-thirds since 2000, and more than 6 million lives have been saved, the disease still kills hundreds of thousands of Africa’s children each year.
Irene Koek
Acting Global Malaria Coordinator