Top US malaria envoy visits Malawi

A top envoy of the US President George W. Bush on Malaria, Retired Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer, will pay a three-day official visit to Malawi next week to review progress made in the fight against malaria.

A statement from the US embassy in the Malawi capital capital, Lilongwe, says Rear Admiral Ziemer, who is the US Malaria Coordinator and leads the implementation of the US President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), will review the progress of the PMI/Malawi initiative's first full year of implementation.

"Admiral Ziemer will meet with senior government officials and civil society representatives in the health sector to discuss malaria activities in Malawi," according to the statement.

President Bush launched the PMI 30 June, 2005. It is a collaborative US Government effort led by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in conjunction with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of State, the White House, and others.

PMI represents a historic five-year expansion of US Government resources to fight malaria in Africa, the region most affected by the disease, according to the US embassy statement.

President Bush committed an additional US$ 1.2 billion over a period of five years in malaria funding to the Initiative with the goal of reduc ing malaria-related deaths by 50% in 15 focus countries, including Malawi.

Malaria is Malawi's highest killer disease with 18% of all hospital-recorded deaths and 40% of all hospital cases.

Last year alone, 4 million malaria cases were recorded, resulting into 7,000 deaths, according to the National Malaria Control programme.

Rear Admiral Ziemer previously served as Executive Director of World Relief, which provides disaster response, community development, child/maternal health, HIV/AIDS, agricultural assistance, and micro credit programmes in over 30 countries.