Malaria prevention programs frozen; insecticide net distributions off-track across Africa (April 15, 2025 )
April 15, 2025 — The President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) — a U.S. program credited with helping save 11.7 million lives and preventing 2.1 billion malaria cases since its inception in 2006, including a 48 percent decline in malaria deaths in the countries where it operates — was frozen by the January stop-work order and struggled to fully resume even after waivers were issued. By early April, nearly 30 percent of planned insecticide-treated net (ITN) distribution campaigns were off-track or at risk of delay due to funding shortages.
A WHO rapid assessment of 64 malaria-endemic countries found that more than half reported moderate or severe disruptions to malaria services, including shortages of medicines and health products, because of the U.S. funding freeze. A confidential internal USAID memo estimated that if PMI was halted permanently, an additional 12.5 to 17.9 million malaria cases and 71,000 to 166,000 deaths could occur annually. PMI had been the interagency lead for U.S. malaria efforts in 30 countries that together account for 90 percent of the world's malaria cases and deaths, partnering with CDC and operating in more than 50 total countries.
The Trump administration's FY2026 budget request proposed cutting malaria funding from $805 million to $424 million — a $381 million (47 percent) reduction — with no explanation of how the resulting capacity gap would be addressed. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which the U.S. had funded at $1.65 billion annually and which was seeking $18 billion for its next three-year replenishment, warned that the U.S. retreat threatened to reverse decades of progress as it scrambled to find replacement donors.
| https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/the-trump-administrations-foreign-aid-review-status-of-the-presidents-malaria-initiative-pmi/ |