U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative announces new five-year strategy to end world’s oldest pandemic within a generation

PMI, led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has helped save 7.6 million lives and prevent 1.5 billion malaria infections in the last two decades.

“PMI’s five-year strategy aims to continue to save lives, address health inequities, and improve disease surveillance and health security,” USAID said in a statement. “The strategy will focus on reaching the unreached, strengthening community health systems, keeping malaria services resilient, investing locally and supporting innovation.”

Malaria, thought to be one of the oldest pandemics in the world, continues to kill more than 400,000 people each year. COVID-19, climate change and conflict have reversed some of the hard-won gains made over the past two decades against malaria–and they continue to threaten progress. This turns back the clock for many countries fighting to reduce deaths and eliminate the fatal disease. As one of the largest donors in the global fight against malaria, PMI works in countries that account for 80 percent of the world’s malaria burden. Through this strategy, PMI will continue to partner with countries, donors and others to sustain its life saving work.

The strategy has three specific objectives:

1. Reduce mortality by 33 percent from 2015 levels in high-burden PMI partner countries
2. Reduce malaria morbidity by 40 percent from 2015 levels in PMI partner countries with high and moderate malaria burden
3. Bring at least ten PMI partner countries toward national or subnational elimination and assist at least one country in the Greater Mekong Subregion to eliminate malaria.

Since 2005, PMI has invested $8 billion in hundreds of millions of mosquito-killing nets and sprays, life-saving malaria tests and medicines, and heroic health workers in clinics and communities.