Global Malaria News

We have now reached a total raised of US$190,000,000 since AMF started - thanks to a donation from Phoenix, Arizona, USA!

We have also just passed 398,000 donations received, with this coming from over 114,000 people in 187 countries! Closing in on 400,000 donations!

As always, our sincere thanks to everyone for their support and generosity which is both humbling and thrilling. Humbling, given the repeated support of donors and the magnitude of some of the donations, and thrilling to know what these donations can achieve.

I am pleased to report we have raised close to US$10,000,000 in the last month from more than 8,900 donors and this has made a dent in the funding we are hoping to raise to fund the further nets needed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the two most malarious countries in the world, where we have the potential to have a large impact on health outcomes. Donations have ranged from US$2 to US$2.5m, and they ALL matter, as each US$2 buys a net and helps close the funding gap.

Insecticide-infused mosquito netting is in widespread use around the world to limit the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria. Researchers have now come up with a technique that measures how much insecticide is found on the surface of these nets -- paving the way for efforts to determine how long the nets are effective.

Question: Does malaria treatment, especially with paluta injection cause insomnia. I have experienced this twice. Answer: If you are referring to injection with artemether (sold as Paluther), then yes, trouble sleeping has been recorded as a possible side effect. However, it should not persist for long after the medication has been administered, so you should consult […]

If you are considering donating to AMF on or before 29 Dec 18, please check out https://doubleupdrive.com/. These guys are fantastically generous and will double your donation to AMF.

You can either donate directly to AMF and send the donation receipt we email you (minus the link to your private donations page) to receipts@doubleupdrive.com or donate via the Effective Altruism Foundation via the form on the Double Up Drive page.

Thank you!

If you are considering donating to AMF on or before 29 Dec 18, please check out https://doubleupdrive.com/. These guys are fantastically generous and will double your donation to AMF.

You can either donate directly to AMF and send the donation receipt we email you (minus the link to your private donations page) to receipts@doubleupdrive.com or donate via the Effective Altruism Foundation via the form on the Double Up Drive page.

Thank you!

As 2018 draws to a close we would like to thank all who have supported and worked with AMF this year as without donors, distribution partners, volunteers and pro bono supporters we would not be able to do what we do in contributing to the fight against malaria. Thank you!

Distributions update

Distributions and follow-up surveys are currently being undertaken in a number of countries. We have just completed the distribution of 1.0 million nets in Papua New Guinea, 3.6 million nets in Ghana and 4.3 million nets in Malawi. Approximately 4 million nets are about to be shipped to Guinea and the first of 11.8 million nets for distribution in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In total, these nets will protect 43 million people.

Future distributions

There remains a huge need for nets. The gap for the next few years runs into tens of millions of nets. We are involved in discussions in a number of countries requiring individually between 3.5 million and 18 million nets for the period 2019 to 2020, including a significant gap in DRC.

AMF's gap for more funding remains large and we agree with GiveWell's assessment that the total funding gap for LLINs for 2019-2020 appears to be hundreds of millions of dollars.

We will publish commitments as they are made.

393,000th donation and over US$185 million raised so far!

We are thrilled to have recently received our 393,000th donation, with most donations ranging from a few dollars (and £, €, CAN$, NZ$, AUS$, bitcoin and more) to many thousands.

We are so grateful for your support. Thank you!

Tax-Deductibility

We now have tax-deductible status in a dozen countries, most recently in Norway. We continue to assess the need for tax-deductibility status in other countries, some of which are already in the application stage and we hope to complete in the very near future.

AMF top ranked!

AMF has again been top-ranked by the two leading organisations 'dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities'.

GiveWell has ranked AMF a top charity, for the seventh time in eight years

The Life You Can Save has AMF as a top-ranked charity for the eighth year in a row

A suggestion for the Christmas/Holiday season!

Donate nets instead of gifts.

We send the recipient/s an email (on a date you choose e.g. 25th Dec) with your personal message and a link to their 'gift page', allowing them to follow the progress of their nets.

May we wish you a very happy and healthy 2019!

Rob, Andrew, Peter, Julian, Jenny, Shaun, Andy and David

A short, informative video about what AMF does and how we do it.

"Why one brilliantly simple charity is the best in Canada (and probably the world)"

Especially nice to see as we weren’t aware it was being put together and we didn’t have any involvement with it.

Thanks folks!

We'd be very grateful if people would share this!

Researchers have developed novel ferrocene-based molecules that impair the malaria parasite's metabolic function leading to parasite death.

Currently, few antimalarial treatments exist that effectively kill liver-stage malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax, which can lay dormant for months or even years. Researchers have reported a new drug that could eliminate liver-stage malaria parasites completely. Using an insect virus, known as a baculovirus, the researchers investigated the ability of baculovirus to mediate innate immunity against malaria infection. This work could pave the way for developing new and more effective antimalarial treatments.

They approach with the telltale sign -- a high-pitched whine. It's a warning that you are a mosquito's next meal. But that mosquito might carry a virus, and now the virus is in you. Now, with the help of state-of-the-art technology, researchers can see how a virus moves within a mosquito's body, which could lead to the prevention of mosquitoes transmitting diseases.

Researchers spent two years testing chemical compounds for their ability to inhibit the malaria parasite at an earlier stage in its lifecycle than most current drugs, revealing a new set of chemical starting points for the first drugs to prevent malaria instead of just treating the symptoms.

The immediate need for funding nets far exceeds the amount we have available.

There is a currently unfunded need for AMF to provide 22 million nets for people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. DRC is one of the two largest contributors to malaria deaths and illness, so there is the potential to have an extremely large impact on health outcomes. The total funding gap is US$45 million.

Thanks to our donors' incredible commitment to fighting malaria, we have recently been able to sign agreements to fund 3.86 million nets for distribution in Guinea (Mar-Apr 2019) and 11.8 million nets for distribution in the Democratic Republic of Congo (April and November 2019). These nets will protect an estimated 28.1 million people.

The time to identify funding for the major gap in DRC is now in order to allow adequate time for preparations for what is a significant national-level logistics operation. Extensive planning is needed for proper accountability and transparency, which is particularly needed in a country such as DRC. This needs to be done prior to manufacture, international shipment and distribution within the country. The earlier funding can be identified in the next five months the better will be the preparations for the distribution.

This is the most significant opportunity AMF has had to date:

• protect 40.5 million people
• avert 10-15,000 deaths and 10-15 million cases of malaria
• improve GDP in DRC by an estimated $540m
• influence materially the accountability of the universal coverage campaign in one of the world's two most malarious countries
• slow down the growth of insecticide resistance which threatens to undermine the whole country net programme through the purchase of PBO nets

AMF is well placed to assist with this opportunity:

• a track record of successful multi-million net distributions
• direct experience and established relationships in DRC
• Global Fund partnership covers non net costs and reduces risk
• agreement for 11.8 nets recently signed with the Ministry of Health so no agreement hurdles to overcome
• our leadership in dealing with insecticide resistance through use of next generation nets

There is no other funding currently identified. The gap exists after all commitments from AMF, The Global Fund and other funders have been taken into account, including our latest commitment of nets.

This is not an 'all or nothing' situation, every extra net funded by our donors will fill the need of someone at risk from malaria and we remain exceptionally grateful to all donors of small or large amounts.

GiveWell has updated its top charity list and we are delighted to be ranked again as a top charity!

From GiveWell's recent update review of AMF:

"The Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) is one of our top-rated charities, and an organization that we feel offers donors an outstanding opportunity to accomplish good with their donations."

"We believe that AMF is likely to be constrained by funding. There is a high degree of uncertainty in the maximum amount that AMF could use productively, but given AMF's track record of finding and filling funding gaps for LLINs and the large size of the global funding gap (estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars for 2018-2020), we expect the maximum to be significantly greater than what AMF is likely to receive."

We are delighted to report that we - all of us together - have now reached a cumulative total since AMF started of US$180 million raised!

This has been possible through the support of 112,000 people in 189 countries who have made 386,392 donations. Our smallest single donation has been US$1, our largest US$22.8 million. And every donation matters as each US$2 buys a net and protects two people when they sleep at night from the bites of malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

These funds equate to 81 million nets protecting 145 million people with an estimated 65,000 lives saved and 65 million cases of malaria averted. The positive contribution to GDP is estimated to be $2.2 billion.

Thank you for all your support!

We are privileged to witness first-hand the generosity, and repeated generosity, of donors and receive truly wonderful letters and emails of good wishes and support. Thank you for your confidence in our work.

There is a significant gap between the nets we can fund and the requests we currently have so we will continue to work hard to contribute all we can to close the net funding gaps that exist.

Researchers have generated six Zika virus antibodies that could be used to test for and possibly treat a mosquito-borne disease that has infected more than 1.5 million people worldwide.

Conversion from the asexual to the sexual phase of the malaria parasite is necessary for its transmission to the mosquito.

Malaria parasites know good times from bad and plan their offspring accordingly, scientists have found, in a development that could inform new treatments.

A balanced production of pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines at two years of age protects against clinical malaria in early childhood, according to a new study. The results also indicated that early exposure to the parasite does not affect the risk of developing the disease, although it could affect the parasite-specific immune response later in life.

AMF has signed an agreement with the DRC Ministry of Health to fund 11.8 million nets for distribution from April to December 2019. This represents 40% of DRC’s long-lasting insecticide treated net (LLIN) need for the 2019 portion of their three-year rolling universal coverage campaign.

The nets will be distributed in five of DRC's 26 provinces, specifically:

• Equateur: 1.5m nets to protect 2.7m people, distribution during April 2019
• Sud Ubangi: 1.9m nets to protect 3.4m people, distribution in June 2019
• Tanganyika: 2.0m nets to protect 3.6m people, distribution in Q3 2019
• Haut Katanga: 4.0m nets to protect 7.2m people, distribution in Q4 2019
• Haut Lomami: 2.4m nets to protect 4.3m people, distribution in Q4 2019

In total, 21.2 million people will be protected.

Malaria is one of the primary health issues in DRC, with high incidence levels seen across the majority of the country. DRC is one of the two most malarious countries in the world with malaria responsible for the deaths of at least 100 children under 5 each day in DRC alone.

These nets have the potential to play a major part in reducing deaths and illness. This quantity of nets could be expected to prevent 8,000 deaths, 8 million cases of malaria and make a material impact on the economy of DRC. It is estimated that the improvement in GDP (Gross Domestic Product), a measure of economic performance, would be about US$280 million.

AMF allocates individual donations to specific distributions and so far we have allocated 28,040 individual donations from 12,941 donors from 94 countries. These figures will increase as further donations are allocated. Many donations, large and small, help fund these nets.

We will report openly on progress and performance throughout and after the distribution.

Key elements of our agreement include:

• AMF is funding 11,800,000 LLINs for distribution in 2019
• This is a co-funding partnership with non-net costs (shipping, pre-distribution, distribution) funded by the Global Fund
• To support accurate data gathering, re-checks of net need numbers will take place by re-visiting a material number of households chosen at random.
• AMF will collect household registration data from the entirety of a proportion of villages as an independent check on registration and population numbers
• Household-level data will be collected on paper or using electronic-devices and then entered into AMF’s Data Entry System (DES) for analysis and verification. This, and the above elements combined, are the basis for a highly accountable distribution.
• Post-distribution monitoring of net use and condition (PDMs) will take place every nine months for two and a half years in all districts. AMF will fund this.

Distribution in Equateur and Sud Ubangi

Distribution in Tanganyika, Haut Katanga and Haut Lomami

Mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles are well known as primary vectors of malaria. But a new study suggests that Anopheles species, including some found in the United States, also are capable of carrying and transmitting an emerging pathogen, Mayaro virus, which has caused outbreaks of disease in South America and the Caribbean.