With U.S. government support, Madagascar has reduced the number of confirmed malaria cases in the country last year from 2.3 million to 1.7 million, a reduction of more than 25 percent that has saved lives and kept Malagasy’s healthy and productive in support of the country’s development.

The result was announced during the World Malaria Day commemoration event in Farafangana and included in the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) 17th Annual Report to Congress.  Farafangana is the largest city in the Atsimo-Atsinanana region, where more than one third of malaria cases were reported last year.

Managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S support is critical to scaling-up proven, cost-effective, and life-saving malaria control interventions in Madagascar.

In 2022, PMI helped Madagascar’s National Malaria Program (PNLP) fight malaria by distributing 1.3 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets; spraying 214,000 households with safe insecticides, protecting 886,000 people; administering more two million preventive treatment doses to pregnant women; and delivering 7.8 million rapid diagnostic tests and treatment.

The U.S. and Malagasy governments, Roll Back Malaria partners, and local administrative and health authorities encouraged health professionals to increase their efforts to control malaria. USAID’s Health, Population, and Nutrition Office Deputy Director David Parks noted that “today’s event reminds us that we all play a part in malaria control,” and “we can celebrate what we have achieved so far and redouble our collective efforts to reach our common goal of eliminating malaria.”

Through PMI, the U.S. government provides about 50 percent of the funding needed to help the Ministry of Public Health through the PNLP reduce malaria cases and deaths and to progress toward eliminating malaria.

Like “mpirahalahy mianala,” the people of the United States walk hand in hand with the people of Madagascar to control malaria and provide 26 million USD in 2022 and 383 million USD in support since 2008.