Marathon Oil Corporation announced that the Government of Equatorial Guinea, Marathon, Noble Energy GEPetrol and SONAGAS, are extending their successful Bioko Island Malaria Control Project (BIMCP) in Equatorial Guinea. The innovative private-public partnership has committed to investing an additional $28 million to continue its malaria control initiative through 2013. One-third of the project funds will be a direct investment by the Government of Equatorial Guinea, and the remaining two-thirds has been committed by Marathon, Noble Energy and business partners. The announced extension project brings total spending on malaria control in Equatorial Guinea to $71 million.
The BIMCP began in 2003 as a five-year, $15.8-million initiative to address the burden of disease attributable to malaria on the population of Bioko Island. The project has focused on vector control through indoor residual spraying, distribution of free drugs to high risk populations such as pregnant women and children under the age of 15, and a comprehensive monitoring and surveillance program; universal bed net coverage was added in 2007. In 2006, the BIMCP was expanded to the mainland of Equatorial Guinea through a multi-year commitment by the Global Fund totaling $26 million and an additional Marathon Foundation grant of $1 million, making this program the only integrated malaria control project with nationwide coverage in Africa. The extension of this initiative through 2013 is aimed at leveraging already documented project success and accelerating the attainment of project goals. The effort will remain focused on capacity building of the national team to achieve long-term sustainability.
As the BIMCP enters its fifth year in 2008, it has already achieved life saving results (based on annual household surveys):
- 50 percent reduction in the number of children aged 2 to 15 infected with malaria parasites,
- 85 percent reduction in reported malaria cases in government health facilities,
- 95 percent reduction in the number of mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite based on specimens collected from window traps, and
- 73 percent of children aged 2 to 15 reported sleeping under an insecticide treated bed net the night before the surveys, exceeding the Abuja Declaration targets.
According to estimates from international organizations, prior to the BIMCP, malaria accounted for approximately 40 percent of all deaths among children under the age of five and a comparable high percentage of all illnesses on Bioko Island. Marathon and its partners consulted global public health experts, who concluded that a dramatic reduction in malaria transmission would significantly improve the health status of the population and reduce the heavy economic burden associated with the disease, thus contributing to economic development in the country.
In an effort to build the strong institutional configuration necessary to assure the success of such a complex undertaking, Marathon, Noble Energy and business partners teamed up with the Government of Equatorial Guinea through the Ministry of Health and Social Wellbeing to select an implementation team that now includes leading health specialists from Medical Care Development International (MCDI), One World Development Group, the Medical Research Council of South Africa, the Harvard School of Public Health, Yale University, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Texas A&M University, and local and international chapters of the Red Cross.
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