ANTANANARIVO – The American people are helping Madagascar control the spread of malaria, a serious illness that can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated quickly, especially among young children.
Since 2018, the $12 million Vectorlink project funded by the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has protected 1.4 million Malagasy homes through annual indoor residual spraying and treated 8,000 hectares of rice paddies and homes with anti-larval insecticide to protect more than six million people. PMI leads the U.S. government’s global fight against malaria.
Beneficiaries included 900,000 children under five and 200,000 pregnant women. The project also provided jobs for 15,000 people who worked as sprayers, mobilizers, and support staff, which provided an economic boost for local communities.
“When indoor residual spraying is combined with other interventions such as sleeping under insecticide-treated nets, treating pregnant women, and distributing artemisinin-based drugs, we can advance toward the goal of eliminating malaria in Madagascar” said David Parks, the USAID Health, Population, and Nutrition office Deputy Director at the project’s closing ceremony May 31.
In addition to annual spraying campaigns across 20 districts in 12 regions, USAID helped Madagascar’s National Malaria Control Program improve operations, monitor, and evaluate mosquito control programs, and train staff on strategy and operations of the country’s anti-malaria initiatives.
To achieve these impressive results, USAID promoted collaboration among the Ministries of Environment and Sustainable Development, Agriculture and Livestock, and Education to ensure that spraying campaigns were environmentally compliant to international standards and safe for the population.
Like “mpirahalahy mianala,” the people of the United States walk hand in hand with the people of Madagascar to improve their health and wellbeing and contributed more than $86 million to support Madagascar’s health system in 2022.