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Kigali, Rwanda│Wednesday, December 6, 2006

The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) in Rwanda will be launched tomorrow (December 7) at an event being held at Byimana Health Center in Ruhango District.

The goal of this historic $1.2 billion, five-year international initiative -- whose theme is “Fighting Malaria, Saving Lives” -- is to work closely with host governments in 15 African countries to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50%. Rwanda is among the first seven focus countries, with the final eight to be announced December 14 at the White House Conference on Malaria in Washington, D.C.

With an anticipated $17 million in PMI funding for 2007, Rwanda in Year One will target pregnant women, children under the age of five, people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, and the poorest of the poor, through four primary interventions: prevention of malaria in pregnant women (“intermittent preventive treatment for malaria in pregnancy”); life-saving treatment with the drug Coartem (“artemisinin-based combination therapy” or ACT); the distribution of long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets (LLINs); and the spraying of small amounts of insecticides (“indoor residual spraying” or IRS) on the inside walls of homes in malaria-endemic areas, including Kigali.

Tomorrow’s kick-off event will focus on malaria in pregnancy and will feature U.S. Government officials, including the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, handing over to the Government of Rwanda a symbolic quantity of the anti-malarial for pregnant women, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP). Byimana Health Center, in fact, was selected as the site for this event because of its successful malaria in pregnancy program.

This is a tremendous opportunity to scale up proven interventions to reduce the burden of malaria in Rwanda,” said Kevin J. Mullally, Director of USAID/Rwanda and PMI/Rwanda Country Coordinator. “Preventing this deadly disease will improve life, reduce costs related to illness, boost productivity and most importantly, save countless lives.”

The PMI is an interagency initiative led by USAID, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a key partner.

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