The United States is a committed partner in Cameroon’s fight to control and eliminate malaria. In June, 2020, Embassy officials working under the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) donated equipment at ceremonies in Yaounde, Maroua, and Garoua. These donations will strengthen malaria diagnosis and Cameroon’s health information system and more specifically malaria testing, surveillance monitoring, and evaluation. Health providers and Health facility laboratories working under Cameroon’s National Malaria Control Program received 170 laptops and 30 microscopes through PMI implementing partners . The laptops were donated through the PMI Measure Malaria project, whose primary objective is to enable countries to generate high quality health information that is used for decision making at local, national and global levels. They will support data collection, reporting, and analysis and will help with data-driven decision making and resource allocation at the central level and in the North and Far North regions. The microscope donation with capacity building through the Impact Malaria (IM) project has as one of its major objectives to improve quality of and access to malaria testing. These microscopes will support malaria diagnosis for appropriate case management in health facilities.
U.S. malaria assistance focuses on the North and Far North regions because these two regions have the highest malaria mortality rates. The United States has been active in supporting Cameroon through the President’s Malaria Initiative since 2017, investing roughly 65 million dollars (about 36 billion FCFA) to provide life-saving medications, bed nets, training and more. This support is aligned with Cameroon’s National Strategic Plan for malaria control in coordination with the National Malaria Control Program. The National Strategic Plan mission is to ensure universal access to effective and affordable malaria prevention and treatment intervention for all Cameroonians, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized.