The Global Fund and the United States Partner to Accelerate Rollout of Innovative Malaria Prevention Tool
WASHINGTON D.C./GENEVA – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund), in partnership with the United States government and SC Johnson, today announced a new initiative to accelerate the introduction and scale-up of innovative spatial repellent technology, designed to complement existing high-performing tools like insecticide-treated nets, enhancing malaria prevention and saving lives in some of the world’s highest-burden countries.
The partnership will support the deployment of SC Johnson Guardian™, the first spatial repellent shown to provide protection against malaria for 12 months. The device works by continuously releasing a proven active ingredient into the air, helping to repel mosquitoes from indoor spaces. Spatial repellents are currently recommended for use alongside mosquito nets. Through this collaboration, the partners aim to protect at least 60 million people by 2028 across prioritized countries in sub-Saharan Africa and other malaria-endemic regions.
Malaria kills about 600,000 people a year; more than 75% of those deaths occur in children under the age of 5 in sub-Saharan Africa. Developed through years of research and development at SC Johnson’s urban entomology center in Racine, Wisconsin, and manufactured in Kenya, the technology reflects a powerful model of U.S. scientific innovation paired with sustainable manufacturing close to the communities most affected by malaria.
To advance access to this new tool, the Global Fund will leverage its market-shaping expertise, procurement platform and implementation partnerships to support rapid introduction and delivery of the product to countries most in need. The initiative is expected to expand access to next-generation malaria prevention technologies and help countries revive progress against malaria.
“Malaria remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, especially for children in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Innovative partnerships like this one are essential to staying ahead of the disease and saving lives. By accelerating access to new tools alongside existing interventions, we can help countries strengthen malaria prevention and protect vulnerable communities.”
"The Department of State continues to rapidly make transformational investments in American-led global healthcare progress as we deploy the America First Global Health Strategy's landmark innovation fund," said Jeremy P. Lewin, Senior Official and Acting Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom. "Secretary Rubio believes that with emerging technologies developed and manufactured right here in the United States, we have an exciting opportunity to make focused and targeted investments in tangible interventions that can help bend the curve of the world's deadliest and most pervasive epidemics and global health challenges. This exciting partnership will deliver SC Johnson's spatial emanators to tens of millions of people in high-risk low-income locations, protecting them from the scourge of malaria, while also supporting thousands of research and real manufacturing jobs here in the United States."
The partnership is expected to facilitate introduction of the technology in the highest malaria burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as settings outside of Africa facing other complex challenges or working toward malaria elimination.
The initiative further builds on contributions from partners including the Gates Foundation and Unitaid, whose ongoing investments in evidence generation have brought spatial repellents to the market and continue to support their scale-up in countries most affected by malaria.
As malaria becomes increasingly complex due to factors including insecticide resistance, expanding the toolbox of proven prevention interventions will be critical to sustaining progress.
The Global Fund provides 59% of all international financing for malaria programs and has helped save 70 million lives across more than 100 countries since its inception.