Policy brief on improving access to artemisinin-based combination therapies for malaria in Cameroon

ABSTRACT

Malaria is the major cause of illness in Cameroon, responsible for 40 percent of medical consultations. For this reason, the Head of State along with his African Union peers in April 2000 and 2006 undertook to achieve universal access to malaria control interventions, including effective treatment (10;12). Uneven distribution of health services, especially in rural areas, and high poverty rates make health care and drugs inaccessible or unaffordable (14;16). Therefore, the World Health Organization recommends building comprehensive mechanisms grounded on relevant social and community organizations, including the private sector, to improve access to care for vulnerable populations (22;23). Accordingly, the strategic plan to fight malaria in Cameroon, endorsed by the National Committee to Roll Back Malaria, recommends home-based management of malaria (HMM) to improve access and reduce delays in treatment (12). The national treatment policy has established artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs; artesunate + amodiaquine [AS+AQ] and artemeter + lumefantrine [AL]) in 2006 as the first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria (13;24). Because of the high poverty rate (40 percent of all Cameroonians and 55 percent in rural communities) (16), the Government decided beginning in January 2007 to partially subsidize antimalarials in public and not-for-profit NGO health facilities and in private pharmacies (12). The subsidies are financed by multiple funders