Widespread use of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have contributed to tremendous reductions in malaria cases and deaths over the past two decades. However, the recent emergence and spread of ACT drug resistance in Africa is now threatening progress and putting millions of lives at risk, forcing malaria endemic countries to stop or scale back other lifesaving malaria interventions in order to buy the more costly ACTs.
The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund), and Unitaid urgently call on bilateral and multilateral donors, philanthropic foundations, and the private sector to join us in heeding the call from malaria endemic countries to make existing alternative ACTs available and affordable. The time to act is now.