Malaria Consortium is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to controlling malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

 and other communicable diseases in Africa and Asia. It lists prevention, treatment, operational research, strengthening capacity and advocacy as areas of expertise.

The Malaria Consortium began as a research consortium within the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was originally funded solely by the UK Department for International Development

Department for International Development

The Department For International Development is a United Kingdom government department with a Cabinet Minister in charge. It was separated from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1997. The goal of the department is "to promote sustainable development and eliminate world poverty". The current...

 (DFID), (the Overseas Development Administration before 1997). The organisation became an independent charity in 2003, formally inaugurated in February 2004 by Baroness Amos

Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos

Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, PC is the eighth and current UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to the UN, she had been British High Commissioner to Australia. She was made a Labour life peer in 1997 and served as Leader...

, Leader of the House of Lords

Leader of the House of Lords

The Leader of the House of Lords is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Lords. The role is always held in combination with a formal Cabinet position, usually one of the sinecure offices of Lord President of the Council,...

.

In order to carry out its projects it works with many organisations including UNICEF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID. It has enlisted the broad involvement of many partners to aid the effective delivery of services - communities, health systems, government and non-government agencies, local and international businesses and organisations plus academic institutions.

Over 95% of Malaria Consortium’s staff are located in Africa and Asia, collaborating with health ministries and other organisations in more than 20 countries. It has offices in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 (Malaria Consortium International), Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

 (Malaria Consortium Africa), Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 (Malaria Consortium Asia), Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

, Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

, Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

, Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

 and Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

.

Areas of expertise

Malaria Consortium’s work concentrates on five health areas:

§ Malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

: treatment, diagnostics and mosquito net

Mosquito net

A mosquito net offers protection against mosquitos, flies, and other insects, and thus against diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and various forms of encephalitis, including the West Nile virus, if used properly and especially if treated with an insecticide, which can double...

 distribution, containing resistance to antimalarial drugs, and research and monitoring for partners and national malaria programmes.

§ Childhood Illnesses: especially the three main killers – malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea.

§ Neglected tropical diseases

§ National Health System Support and Capacity Building

§ Advocacy: mobilising parliamentarians, media and civil society

Civil society

Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...

 to fight against malaria and other communicable diseases.

Comic Relief

In April 2009 Comic Relief

Comic Relief

Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief...

 awarded £6.3 million in funding to Malaria Consortium and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as part of the charity’s promise to help protect over one million people in Africa from malaria. This figure was raised from the British public ahead of and during Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day 2009

Red Nose Day 2009

Red Nose Day 2009, was a fund raising event organised by Comic Relief, broadcast live on BBC One and BBC Two from the evening of 13 March 2009 to early the following morning. It was part of the "Do Something Funny For Money" campaign...

, an event that saw nine British celebrities climb Mount Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is a dormant volcano in Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania and the highest mountain in Africa at above sea level .-Geology:...

 in the BT Red Nose Climb to raise funds and awareness of malaria.