Funding cuts for President’s Malaria Initiative would result in 67 million additional malaria cases

A congressional proposal to cut the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) by 44 percent would lead to 67 million additional malaria cases in the next four years, according to a recent mathematical model’s estimates.

PMI was launched in 2005 with a goal to reduce malaria by 50 percent in 15 high-burden countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The program supports prevention and treatment measures like insecticide-treated mosquito nets, indoor residential spraying, diagnosis and treatment, and preventative treatment for pregnant women.

The mathematical model, which was published in PLOS magazine by researchers at Imperial College in the United Kingdom, estimates that proposed funding cuts would lead to 290,589 deaths by 2020.

“Our results provide a conservative estimate of the overall impact of PMI funding as we do not capture the impact of all PMI-associated activities,” Peter Winskill and his colleagues at Imperial College wrote.

Continued funding for PMI interventions, meanwhile, would avert an estimated 162 million additional cases of malaria, saving an estimated 692,589 lives, from 2017 to 2020, the model concludes.

The study’s authors concluded that PMI’s support of high-burden countries and countries that have strategic importance is needed to prevent “a rapid erosion of the progress made in the last 15 years on the road towards malaria eradication.”