2001-2010 United Nations Decade to Roll Back Malaria

What Is Malaria?  |  Malaria in Africa   |  Malaria in Pregnancy  |  Insecticide-Treated Mosquito Nets  |  Children and Malaria  | RBM and Complex Emergencies  |  Epidemic Prediction and Response  |  Facts on ACTs  |  Economic Costs of Malaria  |  Monitoring and Evaluation

RBM and complex emergencies

AT LEAST a million deaths from malaria occur worldwide each year—90% of them in Africa, south of the Sahara. Up to 30% of Africa's malaria deaths are in countries undergoing complex emergencies-situations in which war, civil strife, food shortages and displacement affect large civilian populations. Today, over 120 million people in Africa alone are living in countries affected by complex emergencies.

Malaria deaths during these events usually far exceed those caused by the conflict at the root of the emergency itself. The chaos, which follows war or civil unrest, can destroy health systems, cut food supplies and expose people to multiple infections. Poor living conditions in temporary camps and war-affected towns can increase both vector and water born disease transmission, eroding an individual's immune system.

The RBM Secretariat and its Technical Support Network on Complex Emergencies are helping countries deal with complex emergencies by mobilizing NGOs and other emergency partners, training and equipping them and providing technical support to increase their capacity to respond quickly and effectively to emergency situations. Key activities include:

• Developing new tools. Insecticide-treated plastic sheeting is currently undergoing field trials in Angola and Pakistan. The sheeting, designed to provide shelter in refugee camps, is also an innovative tool—for use when ITNs are unavailable—to protect people from mosquitoes and other insects that transmit disease. Sufficient material to shelter six people costs about US$5.
• Producing and distributing an emergencies handbook. RBM has surveyed and evaluated existing best practices, new approaches and instructional materials for managing malaria in emergencies. RBM has selected the most effective of these and the new handbook will be provided to all emergency agencies.
• Creating and maintaining a malaria database on 30 emergency-affected countries.
• Undertaking operational research into emergency management. Topics under investigation include evaluating drug regimes for use in emergencies.
• Increasing the direct capacity of agencies on the ground to respond to emergencies. New training courses, including an intensive field course conducted three times a year in emergency countries, will help agencies assess their needs, plan effective responses, implement prevention programmes, manage cases and undertake their own field research to improve the impact of their interventions.
• Providing technical support. Since some emergencies—such as civil war—can last to provide long and short-term staff to provide field support to partners working in affected countries. Full-time staff are already working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and south Sudan. This network of technical expertise will assist agencies on the ground to assess and evaluate situations and plan and implement their response. During 2000-2001, RBM's complex emergencies team was involved in Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Somalia and south Sudan. The team also worked with Burundi and Congolese refugees living in camps in the United Republic of Tanzania.

Roll Back Malaria is a global partnership initiated by WHO, UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank in 1998. It seeks to work with governments, other development agencies, NGOs, and private sector companies to reduce the human and socio-economic costs of malaria.
Roll Back Malaria, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 791 2891 E-mail: inforbm@who.int www.rollbackmalaria.org