Amazon Malaria Initiative
The Amazon Malaria Initiative (AMI) was a regional program that was created in 2001 by several countries sharing the Amazon basin with technical support from PAHO/WHO and financial support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and managed by USAID/Peru as part of its South American Regional Infectious Disease Program (SARI). The initiative used a multi-pronged approach to achieve the overall aims of preventing and controlling malaria and reducing malaria-related morbidity and mortality in countries of the Americas. AMI priorities for malaria prevention are as follows, diagnosis and treatment, drug resistance and epidemiological surveillance, vector control, pharmaceutical management, quality of medicines, communication and networking. History The rationale for creating AMI was the need to provide and invest in targeted activities to improve malaria control in the Amazon basin countries where 88% of malaria cases in Latin America and the Caribbean are reported. The Americas also where medication used to treat P. falciparum malaria are being reported to be ineffective. Nearly 95% of the malaria burden in the Americas is located in the Amazon basin region, as well as 98% of the Plasmodium falciparum infection. When AMI first launched the initial participating countries included Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname,