Tanzania has called on African countries and development partners to strengthen sustainable strategies to accelerate the fight against malaria, warning that progress could be reversed if countries remain heavily dependent on imported technologies and external funding.
Speaking at a high-level meeting in New York on strengthening local innovation and accelerating the deployment of new malaria tools, Health Minister Mohamed Mchengerwa said African countries must take greater responsibility for developing, financing and ensuring access to technologies needed to eliminate the disease.
Malaria continues to kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, with Africa carrying the largest share of the global burden.
“It is difficult to find a family in Tanzania that has never spent an entire night awake with a child with a fever, hoping it is just an ordinary fever. Often, it is malaria,” Mr Mchengerwa said.
He said African countries could no longer rely solely on technologies developed elsewhere or on international funding, arguing that they needed to build local capacity to produce essential health products closer to the communities that need them.
Tanzania, he said, already had experience in contributing to malaria innovation and technology development.
The country began producing insecticide-treated mosquito nets in Arusha, while a facility in Kibaha produces biological insecticides designed to kill mosquitoes at the larval stage before they mature.
Tanzania has also participated in research assessing new malaria prevention technologies. Mr Mchengerwa cited a major study conducted in Misungwi, Mwanza Region, which generated evidence on the effectiveness of dual-active-ingredient mosquito nets.
He said the experience demonstrated that African countries should not remain only consumers of innovations developed elsewhere, but should become centres for researching, testing, producing and deploying new technologies.
Mr Mchengerwa also highlighted research by Tanzanian scientists into gene-drive technology, an emerging approach that could potentially alter mosquito populations or their ability to transmit malaria.
Researchers at the Ifakara Health Institute, in collaboration with the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), are studying genetically modified mosquitoes.
The minister said the work reflected growing capacity among young Tanzanian scientists and invited international leaders and development partners to visit research institutions in the country.
However, he acknowledged that technologies such as gene drive raise important questions about safety, regulation and community acceptance.
“People will not accept a new type of mosquito near their homes simply because a minister tells them it is safe,” he said, stressing the need for community involvement and transparent evidence before such technologies are deployed.
He said ministries responsible for health, environment and agriculture in Tanzania were working together on regulatory and policy issues surrounding the technology.
“Trust takes much longer to build than a laboratory. But that time is worth spending,” Mr Mchengerwa said.
He said scientific advances would have limited impact if new technologies failed to reach people most affected by malaria.
The use of dual-active-ingredient mosquito nets has expanded across Africa, while the number of countries introducing malaria vaccines is also increasing.
Mr Mchengerwa also referred to the World Health Organisation's approval of spatial repellents, which are designed to prevent mosquitoes from reaching people, as part of the expanding range of malaria-control tools.
But he said the success of new health technologies should ultimately be measured by whether they reach households. “New tools only count when they reach someone's home,” he said.
That principle, he said, underpins Tanzania's emphasis on expanding domestic production of health products.
Tanzania is implementing policies aimed at attracting investment in pharmaceutical manufacturing, including an accelerated pharmaceutical-sector investment strategy, a task force to advance manufacturing projects and a special Green Lane arrangement for strategic investments. The country is also preparing plans to establish dedicated pharmaceutical manufacturing zones.
Mr Mchengerwa said the measures were intended to reduce unnecessary delays for investors seeking to establish pharmaceutical factories in Tanzania.
He also warned that gains made in the fight against malaria could be reversed if programme financing declines.
Citing estimates by the African Union, he said a 30 per cent reduction in malaria funding could result in an additional 146 million malaria cases and 397,000 deaths by 2030, while African economies could face losses estimated at $37 billion.
He called for financing to cover the entire malaria-control chain, from research and regulatory approvals to manufacturing, procurement and delivery to the last household.
Mr Mchengerwa also acknowledged the need for African governments to increase their domestic contributions to malaria programmes while continuing to work with international partners and the private sector.
“A programme that depends entirely on someone else's budget can be switched off by that same person,” he said.
He said Tanzania's strategy formed part of a broader African push to strengthen pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing on the continent.
Tanzania, which hosts the secretariat of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), wants to work with other African countries to advance the agenda, he said.
According to Mr Mchengerwa, successful deployment of new malaria tools requires several elements: strong scientific evidence, effective regulation, sustainable financing, domestic manufacturing capacity where feasible and community trust.“Remove even one of those and progress stops,” he said.
Quoting the Kiswahili proverb, “One finger cannot kill a louse,” Mr Mchengerwa stressed the importance of cooperation among African countries. “No country will eliminate this problem alone,” he said.
He concluded by recalling words attributed to Tanzania's first president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who in 1959 spoke of lighting a flame on Mount Kilimanjaro whose light would shine beyond Tanzania's borders, offering hope and dignity. Mr Mchengerwa said the vision remained relevant to the fight against malaria.
He expressed hope that Tanzania's investment in science, local manufacturing and health systems would contribute to a future in which malaria was no longer a major threat to African families.
“I hope one day that light will reach the end of malaria, and our grandchildren will encounter this disease only in history books and wonder why it took us so long,” he said.