Statement: Statement from President Bill Clinton on World Malaria Day

On this World Malaria Day, we are closer than ever to realizing a world free of malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that kills one million people per year.

When I visited Africa in 1998, I was the first American president in 20 years to witness firsthand the devastating impact malaria was having on families and economic development across the continent. Funding wasn’t robust enough to fight back against the disease, and the medicines that had been the first line of defense for decades were no longer effective. As a result, thousands of people were dying each day all over the world – 90% in Africa.

In response, my administration made combating malaria part of a new partnership between the United States and African countries to nurture our shared promise of democracy and prosperity. As part of these efforts, we forgave $500 million of bilateral debts on the condition that countries could instead invest the savings in development, education, and health, including malaria treatment and prevention. In 2000, I committed our government to accelerating the development and delivery of vaccines for malaria, TB, and AIDS. A few years later, President Bush’s Malaria Initiative dramatically increased funding for America’s efforts to combat malaria.

Since 2007, the Gates Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) have been working together to help African nations access an innovative subsidy for high-quality malaria medication, beginning in Tanzania. Today, nine countries have access to these treatments, and thanks to the Gates Foundation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, and Roll Back Malaria, medicine that was once more than $8 a dose is now down to $0.50 on average. We are also working with four governments in southern Africa to eliminate malaria completely. These efforts, and many others by governments, NGOs, and the private sector – including commitments made at the Clinton Global Initiative – have helped to reduce death rates dramatically.

There is still much work to be done. With researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other partners, CHAI is exploring new ways to diagnose and treat malaria in the poorest and most isolated parts of Africa. Others are doing more than ever to distribute quality bednets. If the funding and focus that has brought us this far can be sustained, we have reason to believe that not too far in the future malaria will be just a memory in developing nations, just as it is now in the United States.

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