As part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s National Malaria Control Program, Chemonics is working with Ivanhoe Mines and Fio Corporation to pioneer new ways to fight the disease.
Malaria continues to impose enormous social and economic costs on communities and businesses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Of the country’s 70 million residents, 97 percent live and work in areas where the disease is endemic. About 180,000 lives are lost to malaria every year, with pregnant women and children under the age of 5 accounting for more than 90 percent of those deaths. Yet when detected early and accurately, malaria is an entirely treatable disease.
Now, health care workers in the DRC have a new tool and system to diagnose cases of malaria more accurately and report diagnostic data in real-time to improve care for patients.