Blog #4: Subsidies Help Get Modern Malaria Drugs To Millions In Africa

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/18/161344518/subsidies-help-get-modern-malaria-drugs-to-millions-in-africa

Malaria kills 650,000 people every year. The main concentration of deaths are in Africa and consists of mostly children. The United Nations had created a program called The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria. This program is supposed to supply countries with high malaria rate with affordable medications to treat the disease and lower the mortality rates. The program has only finished the first phase of testing and has led to a 26 to 52 percent increase in the availability of malaria medications. This research was done in eight different countries; however, the results are being questioned because the trail run only lasted for half a year in some places and a year in others. The goal of the program is to reach the private treatment centers that treat the majority of patients and don’t have a large supply of the drugs. It is unknown it the program will continue and a few doubt the future of it.

I feel as though this program is showing sufficient progress in the treatment of malaria outbreaks. According to the World Health Organization, Malaria is curable and preventable. However, even though the amount of cases are decreasing, it is stated that a child in Africa dies every minute from malaria (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs094/en/ ). Before any decisions should be made in relation to the fate of this program there should be another trail run in which a specific time is set aside for the testing and research gathering so that there are no discrepancies.  The goals and results of the program so far are astounding and show that malaria can be treated in a good manner of time and save many lives. The availability of this drug will cut down on the use of counterfeit drugs often found in these private treatment centers. The use of these drugs could be detrimental to the lives of the Africans in the sub-Saharan region where the outbreaks are the most common. Many who visit Africa from distant places are also very susceptible to developing cases and so these centers would help out more than just a small location in the world.