SURVEY OF GLOBAL FUND SUPPORT TO THE STRGGLE AGAINST MALARIA IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO. A series of excerpts from interviews with patients and those responsible for the malaria programmes. Dr. François Xavier Mwema, division chief in charge of malaria at the National Program against Malaria) the technical arm of the Ministry of Public Health Malaria is the first cause of morbidity and mortality in our country. This means that roughly 30% to 40% of patients who come to seek medical attention do this on the basis of presumed malarial fever. In 2014, the malaria deaths accounted for only 36% from the number of deaths from all causes. 80% of the deaths concern pregnant women and children under 5. In 2014 malaria killed 25,502 people. The problem with medicines is that we run out of stock and also that there is no culture of reporting back on stock shortages. So there is a total blur on how they use inputs. It's not up to you to address this issue? In DRC the operational unit is the health zone in which we find the chief physicians, the directors of clinics, the doctors and nurses. It is they who must bring us the data. We at the central level try to centralize data. But some zone leader doctors do not report on time. When we come to the end of the year there are reports that are incomplete because of such behaviour. That is the case in public structures, but we do not control what goes on in private structures. In Kinshasa most hospitals and health centers are private. What financial support are you getting from the Global Fund? The global fund supports 308 health zones out of 516 such zones in the DRC. We just received new funding, that will run until 2017. The Global Fund has significantly increased support by giving us more than $ 400 million against $ 350 million for the past project. As long as the wage conditions of doctors and all providers of care remain poor, do you not think that to master malaria in the DRC is a pipedream? It is obvious that in this country the motivation of health workers remains a real headache. But the government is fighting to improve conditions for medical personnel. The needs are enormous. What is your final word on what you do well to support Congolese citizens who fall prey to malaria? I say to the people that we must never forget prevention. The treatments are expensive, the most effective weapon is the mosquito net impregnated with insecticide. Using the screen you reduce the number of malaria episode you can contract during the year. Dr. IMO Mongala is deputy malaria project officer in SANRU and responsible for PR in the fight against malaria. SANRU is the implementing partner of the DRC government with regard to the Global Fund support. "The funding we receive from our partner the Global Fund is very minimal. It is insufficient to cater for so many hospitals and health centres. In our mass sensitization we have always advised people to sleep every night under the mosquito net to reduce episodes of malarias. Because medical care is very expensive in hospitals especially in Kinshasa," she laments, adding that "the Congolese state must improve the living conditions of the populations so that people have the means to seek treatment.” She also said that “The government must find ways to increase the income levels of people so that they can afford medicines. DRC is not a poor country.” Dr Issa ANTA BOBLEMAN, chief doctor of one of the health zones of Kinshasa which receives Global Fund support. "All is well in our area. The use of inputs is done in good and due form in all centers except that once we know there is a stock shortage, we sometimes battle to supply again. But this month there are some centres which we have already given." The mother of two sick children in a health centre in the same zone: "I have hesitated a lot before coming here with them, because I do not have any money. In this centre, they treat well but is expensive. The nurse prescribed me a prescription that cost me $ 55 USD for drugs alone. And there I do not know how much he will still ask me after hospitalization and everything else. But we are not there (close to leaving) yet because I'm not able to buy these products they prescribed me. They only did the tests for which I paid $ 10 USD. It was everything I had on me. " JULIA, a girl who is with her sick brother in another centre. "We were preparing for our (university) exams when my brother felt severe pain. I looked in my suitcase for some quinine tablets and I gave him but it did not help. I had to wake up a friend to take us back home. We were here all night but nobody touched him until dawn. I prayed all night to God to keep his life. At noon, a friend helped us with some money to get the tests. He also bought some medication and water infusion (?). We phoned the family for money, it's very difficult for us. " Didier GASIWA, malaria project manager with the Global Fund, attached to the Ministry of Public Health "The drugs we give to hospitals and health centers are bought with taxpayers' money from Europeans and those of other parts of the world. This means that these inputs were already purchased for Congolese by others. No one has the right to sell them again. We have no other alternative. Each of us must just do better. " Gaston NKINTI an old doctor and former journalist: “If only our brothers and sisters had the heart to serve. I wish that the Global Fund and all other donors could come together and unite their resources to hire own care providers in own specialized hospitals in all our provinces," he proposes with a forehead wrinkled in anger. Unicef’s Jean-Bosco HULUTE "Funds from the European Unions, the World Bank, the Global Fund and various other agencies have given us the chance to implement the biggest distribution of impregnated mosquito nets impregnated ever seen in the DRC," he said "but the road infrastructure remains poor. We have to rent vehicles, they break down. To get the nets to reach distribution points, we must rely on smaller vehicles, motorcycles or boats and canoes.” This survey was conducted in the following locations: NMCP, TECHNICAL SUPPORT CELL TO THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT OF THE MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH, SANRU, UNICEF, WEBSITE GLOBAL FUND, various health zones.