World Health Officials Describe Progress against Tetanus, HIV and Malaria

This week, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative said it would expand its work to new countries in West and Central Africa, protecting 90 million more people.

The initiative, founded in 2005 as part of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has been a major force in driving down worldwide malaria deaths by about 40 percent in the past decade. The disease most often kills young children and pregnant women.

The expansion in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Niger, and Sierra Leone was made possible because Congress increased funding for the initiative in fiscal year 2017, a representative said.

In his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, President Trump praised the President’s Malaria Initiative and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief as examples of leadership in humanitarian assistance by the United States.

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