Zambia
Programme contact
Colin Almeleh
Programme Director, Health
+44 20 3116 0700
colinalmeleh
@arkonline.org
Preventing diarrhoea deaths in Zambia
Over 700,000 infants will be vaccinated against rotavirus by 2015
560 health workers will be trained in diarrhoea treatment by early 2014
Our mission in Zambia is to support and develop an integrated anti-diarrhoea approach for Africa that includes three elements: infant vaccination, better medical treatment and prevention.
Diarrhoea causes more deaths of young children in sub-Saharan Africa than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, yet its treatment still attracts relatively little investment.
Working with our local partner, the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), and the Ministry of Health, we will strengthen the Zambian health system. Our immediate goal is to reduce the 15,000 diarrhoea-related deaths a year among children under the age of five. Up to one in three of these deaths is due to rotavirus, an easily transmitted infection for which there is now an effective vaccine.
Watch partners, nurses and mothers speak at our
programme launch in Lusaka
Accelerating action for children
- Our programme has already sped up the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine in Zambia by convening significant global actors to support our ambition and accelerate action. ARK was the first organisation to receive match-funding from the UK government for the Global Alliance for Vaccines (GAVI). Together with a vaccine donation provided by GlaxoSmithKline in October 2011, this will more than double the impact of our £2 million investment in vaccines. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also co-invested in the monitoring and analysis of the programme, which will help provide crucial evidence for roll-out of our diarrhoea model not only within Zambia, but also the entire continent.
- We have invested in a new paediatric training clinic which will become the country's first centre of excellence for diarrhoea treatment. This is where we will train and mentor nurses and clinic staff to treat children with diarrhoea.
- We also plan to raise community awareness of how to prevent diarrhoea.