Health

Everyone wants to live a long and healthy life.

But if you live in a poor country your chances of living a full span are vastly lower than in the West.

Malaria and TB

Malaria

Over three billion people are at risk from malaria – particularly children under five and pregnant women. More than one million people die from malaria every year. These deaths are mostly among children - every 30 seconds an African child dies of malaria - and 90% are in sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change will increase malaria risk considerably.

Using long lasting insecticide-treated bed nets saves lives. DFID is backing schemes to provide families with free or low-cost bed nets and are making it easier for people to get prompt, effective treatment:

Bed nets have been shown to cut child deaths from malaria by nearly 50%.
There has been a rapid increase in the use of modern, highly effective anti-malarial drugs from four million doses in 2004 to 100 million doses in 2006.
In 2004 Ethiopia lagged behind many of its neighbours with only 5% of households owning a single bed net. Having now distributed more than 18 million bed nets since 2005, Ethiopia is now approaching an unprecedented goal of two long lasting insecticide-treated nets for every household in a malaria-endemic area.
Using a combination of bed nets, medication, spraying and environmental management, Eritrea has managed to reduce malaria deaths by 85% and reduce incidence by 63% since 1999.
Between 2003 and 2006 Zanzibar began a mass bed net distribution campaign increasing coverage from 10% to 90%, while also providing the entire population with access to free anti-malarial medication. This concentrated effort produced a 75% drop in malaria-related mortality in children under five between 2002 and 2005, and a 77% drop in malaria-related hospital admissions.

Research into Malaria

DFID has contributed over £16 million for new drug development to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDI) and the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV).
Through WHO, DFID supports the Special Programme for Research and Training on Tropical Diseases (TDR) with £5.5 million for 2005/2008.
There is also a £5 million financial support package (2005 to 2010) to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and £5 million (2006/2011) for the Nuffield Institute at Leeds University who are both carrying out research in communicable diseases including malaria.

Tuberculosis (TB)

Every year TB kills about two million people.

DFID supports research into new drugs to treat TB, and into making treatment available to more and more people. While many countries have made big progress, these gains are threatened by co-infection (instances where people are infected with both TB and HIV and AIDs) and the emergence of drug-resistant TB strains.

Improving TB control programmes in Pakistan

Research in Pakistan funded by DFID examined why people stopped receiving TB treatment and why those who began treatment often did not follow their drug regimens.

The research was designed in partnership with the Pakistan National TB Programme, so that the results were directly fed into national guidelines and training materials. This led to a pilot of TB services integrated within district health systems, provincial TB strategies, and guidelines for district planning and case management.

Successful treatment rates have now leapt from around 30% to 84%, making a significant contribution to the health of the estimated 250,000 new TB patients each year. The TB case management guidelines have been adapted and adopted by the national programmes in other countries such as Uganda and China.

Child under a bed net treated with insecticide, Kenya

Child under a bed net treated with insecticide, Kenya. Image credit: Thomas Omondi

Ten million children die each year, largely from diseases that could easily be cured by relatively cheap drugs.

Douglas Alexander Secretary of State

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