Honourable Professor Jane Halton, Secretary of the Department of Health of Australia;
Honourable Mr Lov Verma, Secretary of the Ministry of Health of India;
Colleagues from WHO and the Asian Development Bank;
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Welcome to the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific!
This is a wonderful opportunity for WHO to host the second meeting of the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance Task Force on Improving Access to Quality Medicines and Other Technologies.
This journey started in Sydney in 2012 thanks to the leadership of Australia with the conference entitled: "Malaria 2012: Saving Lives in the Asia-Pacific".
The discussions highlighted key stakeholder efforts to fight malaria in the Asia Pacific region AND the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance was set up as a mechanism for coordinating efforts.
Since that time, the alliance has worked tirelessly to promote political leadership and collaboration against the disease in the region.
Together, we are accelerating progress towards the goal of reducing the malaria burden by 75%.
We all recognize that the fight against malaria goes beyond the health sector.
Malaria impacts regional trade, transportation, migration, and especially rural industries, such as agriculture, mining and forestry.
The need to work across sectors and societies makes effective partnerships and collaboration more essential than ever.
To this end, I wish to thank the alliance for its strong support of WHO Member States in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions. Both have made good progress on malaria.
The 10 malaria-endemic countries of the South-East Asia Region reduced cases by nearly a third between 2000 and 2012. That's nearly one million less malaria cases per year.
Deaths declined at an even greater rate — by more than 75% during the same time!
Here in the Western Pacific Region most of the 10 malaria-endemic countries also made good progress.
Malaria cases fell to less than 300 000 in 2012, from nearly 400 000 in 2000.
At the same time, malaria deaths declined by more than 80%.
Eight countries in the Western Pacific have already reached the World Health Assembly target of a 75% reduction in malaria burden by 2015, as compared to 2000.
In all, nine out of 10 countries in the Region have established malaria elimination goals.
Still, we continue to face major challenges — and historic dangers — if we do not maintain and strengthen our efforts against malaria. We risk not only further advances, but also the incredible gains we have made.
The cuts threaten to reverse gains and to demoralize Member States.
Vanuatu, for example, has an impressive record. The small island nation is now classified as a middle-income country with a low malaria burden — which means they receive no new funding for malaria from the Global Fund.
While we deeply appreciate the Global Fund's support on many fronts, we must find a way around these limitations on Member States.
We cannot afford to wait. The Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a testament to how quickly malaria can resurge.
Though still expected to reach the 2015 goal, the country suffered a twofold increase in malaria cases in 2012.
As you know, the Western Pacific Region is massive and diverse — spanning from Mongolia to far-flung Pacific island nations.
We are home to the world's most populous country — China with more than 1.3 billion people — and its least-populated territory — the Pitcairn Islands with only 48 inhabitants.
These differences — in population, politics, economics, environment, culture and so on — are at once our greatest strength and greatest challenge.
All Member States endorsed the road map for malaria in the Region: The Regional Action Plan for Malaria Control and Elimination in the Western Pacific (2010 – 2015).
But the reality is that we still must look at each country individually and tailor our support to their needs.
Artemisinin resistance is a daunting issue with global implications. The challenge gets tougher when you consider the size of the Region and its geography, with hard-to-control borders and harder-to-reach populations.
Migrants, ethnic minorities and rural workers are highly vulnerable. These groups often have little or no access to quality medicines and health care.
We must improve our track record on reaching vulnerable populations — the poorest of the poor — with effective interventions to stop the spread of artemisinin resistance.
The recently-established Emergency Response to Artemisinin Resistance Regional Hub, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is close to the problem areas and equipped to respond.
The hub coordinates and facilitates actions towards containment and elimination of artemisinin resistance.
In addition to what we do as organizations, I would like to call upon EACH OF YOU to raise your voice against the use of oral artemisinin monotherapy. This practice must cease.
We know that drug regulatory issues persist in some countries — all the more reason why regulatory actions must remain at the heart of our efforts to stop artemisinin resistance.
The ASEAN- and APEC-led collaborative drug regulatory mechanisms provide a platform to work together to ensure the quality and safety of medical products of public health importance.
But we must foster broader collaboration to ensure convergence of regulatory practices across the region. With artemisinin resistance, you are only as safe as your neighbour.
One example of effective collaboration was Interpol's Operation Storm. The agency teamed up with WHO and Member States to targeted counterfeit and illegal pharmaceuticals.
More than 30 people were arrested, and a hundred pharmacies and illicit drug outlets were closed in Southeast Asia.
In all, more than 20 million counterfeit and illegal medicines were seized, including many antimalarials and antibiotics.
In addition to supporting enforcement efforts, however, we must find new ways to strengthen national procurement and distribution systems.
The painful truth is that one large-scale stock-out of malaria medicines or insecticides and bednets can reverse years of gains in a SINGLE season.
– importance of stakeholders Indeed, successfully combating malaria requires a concerted effort by all those capable of effective action — from regulatory authorities and technical experts to funding partners.
WHO acknowledges with great appreciation the vision and convening power of the Government of Australia.
Without you, this ambitious endeavour would not have been possible.
Likewise, the alliance has helped galvanize participation among three WHO regions: the Eastern Mediterranean, the South-East Asia and the Western Pacific.
The alliance helps address one of the most pressing challenges: access to quality medicines and other technologies.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has also played a leading role by providing financial resources to contain and stop the spread of artemisinin resistance — first on the Thai–Cambodia border, then the entire Greater Mekong Subregion.
The WHO Emergency Response to Artemisinin Resistance Regional Hub in Cambodia is generously supported by both the Gates Foundation and the Government of Australia.
Another partner merits mention. The U.S. Agency for International Development was among WHO's first to help address drug resistance in the region with the funding of the Mekong Malaria Programme.
The programme set up the first hub in the region in Bangkok, and brought together national programmes and partners to combat artemisinin resistance in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
Likewise, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership’s work in advocacy — promoting new partnerships and more sustainable financing —also strongly complements WHO’s technical functions.
I am pleased to see this spirit of cooperation and collaboration growing, with more partners and private sector participation.
In particular, it gives me great pleasure to work with the Asian Development Bank and the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance to establish a Regional Malaria and Other Communicable Disease Threats Trust Fund.
The fund — to be managed by ADB — promises new opportunities for the countries to improve the health and well-being of their people.
Looking forward, I want to take a moment to reflect on WHO's role.
We have a long history of active engagement and technical support for all malaria-endemic countries in the Western Pacific Region.
In this meeting, we have a historic opportunity. This meeting provides an ideal platform to join forces and address issues well beyond malaria and drug resistance — such as communicable diseases and other public health threats.
Up to now, we have been fortunate to be able to recruit world-class experts and sustain our support, playing an important role in countries’ success against malaria and other diseases.
But declining funding could put that critical role in jeopardy.
As we explore sustainable funding options, we hope to be able to continue to push ahead in our efforts to control and eliminate malaria.
The work is simply too important — with too much at stake — for us to fail.
All eyes are on us — the international community, Member States, partners and stakeholders. The list goes on….
And expectations are justifiably high.
Let us not disappoint all those people across Asia and the Pacific who have trusted us to get this job done.
Thank you.