U.S. Malaria Donations Saved Almost 2 Million African Children<br />They found that countries helped by the malaria initiative had 16 percent fewer deaths in<br />that age group, which amounts to about 1.7 million lives of babies and toddlers saved since the program began, said Harsha Thirumurthy, a health economist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the lead author.<br />Global Health By<br />DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.<br />JUNE 26, 2017<br />Over the last decade, American donations to fight malaria in Africa have saved the lives of nearly<br />two million children, according to a new analysis of mortality rates in 32 countries there.<br />The researchers — economists from the University of North Carolina and Harvard — looked at death rates for children under 5, contrasting the 19 countries<br />that get American malaria aid (mostly in the form of mosquito nets, house spraying and malaria pills) with 13 countries that do not.<br />In the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes & Trends surveys over the last 15 years, Dr. Bendavid said in an email, 75 percent or more of residents of Ghana, Kenya, Ivory Coast<br />and Senegal usually said they regard the United States favorably.<br />Rear said that We gave them a heads-up that we were doing the analysis, but we didn’t share the results with them till they were in print.<br />The study, published by PLOS Medicine this month, looked at the long-term effects of the President’s Malaria Initiative,<br />a program started by President George W. Bush in 2005 that has spent over $500 million a year since 2010.
