Iniciativa Presidencial Contra a Malaria. Trabalhando com as Comunidades para Salvar Vidas em Africa. Terceiro Relatorio Anual. Sumario Executivo (President's Malaria Initiative: Working with Communities to Save Lives in Africa. Third Annual Report, March 2009. Executive Summary)

摘要

Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease. It remains one of the major causes of illness and death among children in Africa, and is estimated to account for 300million to 500 million illnesses and nearly 1 million deaths each year, with 90 percent of those deaths in children under five years of age. Malaria also places a tremendous burden on national health systems and individual families. Economists estimate that malaria accounts for approximately 40 percent of public health expenditures in Africa and causes an annual loss of $12billion, or 1.3 percent of the continent's gross domestic product. Malaria and poverty are closely linked; the greatest burden of malaria usually falls on residents of rural areas, where access to health care is limited by cost or distance. As a result, the control of malaria is a major objective of the U.S. foreign assistance program.