Mr. Chairman and other distinguished members of the subcommittee, I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to submit this testimony in support of increased funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I am Melinda Moree, director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI). MVI works to accelerate the development of promising malaria vaccine candidates and to ensure that once a vaccine is licensed, it will be made available to people in the developing world. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in particular, responsible for much of the U.S. government’s malaria research, performs and oversees groundbreaking studies that are vital to malaria vaccine development and the entire malaria field. Without adequate resources applied at this level, malaria’s death toll could climb as progress toward new tools to defeat it is stifled.
In the brief minute that it took you to read this introduction, three children died from malaria. That’s three children every minute.
Malaria is a parasitic infection transmitted to humans through the bites of female mosquitoes. The resulting disease can be devastating to anyone, but it is particularly hard on pregnant women and young children.
NIH estimates that malaria kills between two and three million people every year; most of them are children who live in poverty stricken countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Those who are not slain by this disease too often suffer long-lasting, debilitating effects.
It is tragic that so many people fall ill or die every day from a largely preventable and treatable disease. New and better tools are needed to end deaths from malaria. NIH is helping create them.
Malaria is a complex disease that has baffled scientists for many years. The lifecycle of the malaria parasite has four stages, and understanding the intricacies at each stage is a formidable challenge. NIH has long played a leading role in seeking solutions to the malaria puzzle by performing everything from basic malaria research to vaccine and drug research and development (R&D).
Impressive progress is being made. NIH support helped unlock the malaria genome, which could lead to highly effective drugs and vaccines, and even ways to alter mosquitoes to prevent malaria transmission. NIH is moving promising new malaria vaccine candidates into clinical trials, including its first malaria vaccine trial in a malaria-endemic country (Mali). NIH also provides critical training to scientists in malaria-endemic countries to enhance the future ability to control malaria. More NIH support would enable even more and faster progress.
I applaud the recent wave of global support for programs to eliminate malaria. Malaria is now being called “low-hanging fruit” by some in the public health community due to notable progress made on several fronts in 2004—the success of a pediatric malaria vaccine in clinical trials in Mozambique, the start of clinical trials of a synthetic malaria drug in Thailand, and the introduction of long-lasting insecticide treated nets in several endemic countries. The Mozambique results prove that it is absolutely possible to make a malaria vaccine that can have significant public health impact. If the appropriate forces are marshaled, progress against malaria can be accelerated over the next several years—progress in everything from the scale-up of bed nets and artemisinin-based combination therapy to development of vaccines, new drugs, and new ways to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
I also applaud the U.S. government for its current support for the work being done at NIH. I believe that our charge now lies in ensuring that U.S. government spending on malaria increases in order to make the maximum possible impact on this disease now and into the future.
The message that I want to leave with you today is clear—NIH has been a good steward of its currently available malaria resources and could do even more with increased support. I urge the committee to stand in support of increased malaria funding for NIH. Money invested in this area is yielding results that matter.
I thank you for your consideration.
This page displays best in a browser that supports current web standards, but all content is accessible via any web device.
