Madagascars fremskridt i kampen mod malaria slået tilbage på grund af finansieringsproblemer, der forhindrer forebyggelse i en nation, hvor 92 procent af indbyggerne nu lever for godt en tier om dagen.
ANTANANARIVO, 7 June 2013 (IRIN): “When fighting malaria, you need to be very technical. When grants come in too late, we end up handing out nets and spraying houses during the rainy season. There are many remote places, which we can’t reach during this time,” Benjamin Ramarosandratana, director of the National Programme for the Fight Against Malaria, told IRIN.
“This year, our 2012 funding came in months later than we expected. For the next campaign, which runs from 2013 until 2015, we haven’t even signed the contract yet, while the year is already half over. This means that the nets we wanted to distribute in August won’t arrive until November,” Ramarosandratana said.
“Fighting malaria is like sitting on a spring (kilde). You need to keep up the pressure to keep figures low. The moment you let go, the amount of cases soar,” he said.
Donors suspended all but emergency assistance to Madagascar in 2009, after President Marc Ravalomanana was deposed in a coup d’etat.
Slow bureaucratic procedures and the long-running political crisis have increased the country’s poverty levels.
“With more than 92 percent of the population living under two US dollar (ca. 11 DKR) a day, Madagascar is now one of the poorest countries in the world,” the World Bank said in a 5 June briefing. These factors have combined to disrupt large-scale antimalarial campaigns.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the US-based President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) saw external funding for malaria prevention in the country increase between 2005 and 2011, peaking at 96 million dollar in 2010.
But since 2012, funding glitches (kiks) have become a major concern.
Pockets of malaria
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