Foreign Affairs Committee on May 11th, 2010

[Dr. Christoph Benn]

That's correct. We don't dictate the terms, but we measure the results. As I indicated, we think this is like a contract. We enter a partnership contract in which the responsibility is with the country, but they are also accountable for the results. That's the contract. If that's kept by both sides, then we provide the money and they provide the services.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you. As I said at the beginning, if we have difficulty trying to go forward on maternal and child health or the MDGs, which will be assessed in September, I think you have provided us today with an excellent example of what we can do, given the requisite funds. We could probably blow past what I consider to be a bit of a distraction here.

Thank you for your time and for coming.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Mr. Dewar.

We're going to have a quick question from Mr. Lunney, and then we'll wrap up with any final comments you have.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

I will pick up on the malaria issue. I congratulate you on the successes of the program in a number of areas. I noticed from your comments that malaria mortality was down about 50% in many of the countries you're engaged with. As well, did I hear you correctly? Was it 104 million or 140 million mosquito nets that have been distributed?

[A voice]

It was 104 million.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

It's 104 million, yes.

I want to ask about the other aspect of trying to control these mosquitoes. Not every genus of mosquito actually carries the infection; what else is being done to control malaria beyond the nets, in terms of controlling the mosquitoes?

[Dr. Christoph Benn]

Basically you have three interventions that you need for malaria control. First is the nets. Then there is the treatment: you eliminate the parasites in the blood of the patients, and you spray insecticide inside the houses, which also kills the mosquitoes. You're right that it's only one species of mosquito, the anopheles, that transmits the malaria, but the combination of these three interventions can basically cut that down.

We see that already in places like Zanzibar, where the reduction of malaria transmission is not 50%, but 90%. If you do all three interventions in a defined area, then you can see dramatic declines.

By the way, I just want to note that there are other mosquitoes, and you can kill those at the same time. That will not prevent malaria, but aedes, for example, transmits yellow fever or dengue fever, or others. You have positive side effects there as well, because you're killing other types of mosquitoes at the same time, so it's quite a dramatic effect that you achieve with relatively simple and doable interventions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Before I give you final comments, I understand you gentlemen had the French added in the subtitles for this committee. Thank you very much for that. We appreciate your recognizing the French and English.

Are there any final comments before we adjourn?

[Dr. Christoph Benn]

Again, thanks for this opportunity and the great discussion.

I have one request from our side, if I may. We met this morning with the chair of the finance committee and we had a very good discussion. We understand that the finance committee made a resolution at the end of last year for increasing support from Canada to the Global Fund. Obviously if this committee would join the finance committee, that would be a wonderful sign. It is always very important to have bipartisan support, and unanimous support, as I understand was the case in the finance committee. That would be tremendously helpful and a very important signal, particularly this year, as I mentioned before.

Thanks again for all your interest, for the excellent questions, and for Canada's support to the Global Fund.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay, and thank you once again for the hard work you guys do on the front lines.

I'm going to suspend for five minutes while we get set up for the video conference for the next round and the next meeting.

With that, we'll thank the guests again.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Francine Lalonde]

We have heard from the witness. She just sent an email. She was not given the right address. Consequently, there will not be a video-conference. It is the company in London that made the mistake, which means we will not pay.

This puts an end to the longest meeting I have chaired.

The meeting is adjourned.