 |
| Map showing where PMI is present |
KMN - The United States government has announced the
institution of an anti-malaria Country Programme for Sierra Leone for the first
time as part of its global response to the major killer disease.
Sierra Leone was named on Thursday among five high
burden Malaria countries in Africa to benefit from the multi-million dollar healthcare
investment under the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).
PMI is the US government’s answer in leading the global
fight against Malaria. It is jointly implemented by the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID) and the Centers for Diseases Control and
Prevention (CDC).
USAID Administrator, Mark Green, made the formal announcement
including Sierra Leone into the initiative at a forum on Malaria in New York last
week, a statement from the US embassy in Freetown which was copied too me said.
It noted that the move is part of an expansion drive of the PMI which was
initiated by President Barrack Obama. Under this expansion drive, new Country
Programmes are being opened in Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, and Niger,
while an existing programme in Burkina Faso will be expanded, the statement
said.
The Sierra Leone Country program will receive US$15
million in the first year of its implementation, Mr Green said at a Roll Back
Malaria event on the sidelines of the just concluded United Nations General
Assembly in New York.
