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 In a joint plan with the Inter-American Development Bank and the
Carlos Slim Foundation, Gates said the Regional Malaria Elimination
Initiative (RMEI) would bring a total of $83.6 million in new funds
"to ensure malaria remains a top health and development priority
despite dwindling numbers of cases".
The new money would also help leverage more than $100 million in
domestic financing and $39 million of existing donor money in the
region by 2022, the philanthropist's Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
said in a statement.
Although Central America has seen a more than 90 percent drop in
malaria cases since 2000, progress against the mosquito-borne
disease has stalled and several countries in the region still have
significant problems with malaria.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 40,270
confirmed cases of malaria were reported in 2016 in Central America,
the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
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Gates said the collaboration would help cover "financial and
technical gaps" in the region as well as strengthening health
systems to tackle other diseases carried by mosquitoes, including
Zika, dengue and Chikungunya.
Worldwide, malaria infects around 216 million people a year, killing
around half a million of them. Most deaths are among babies and
young children in the poorest parts of Africa. The WHO says that in
2016, some $2.7 billion was invested in global malaria control and
elimination efforts.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Alison Williams)
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