The report was presented by HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., and Ronald W. Roskens, Ph.D., administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, following their mission to Africa on behalf of President Bush. The President announced the mission in his speech to the United Nations Summit for Children last September. The findings and recommendations in this report will help to target and strengthen our assistance and increase the effectiveness of our cooperative efforts. The nations we visited exhibited a self-help attitude toward overcoming the impediments to improved child health, and we are committed to assist them toward those goals. U.S. assistance should continue to support targeted child survival activities while promoting policies that advance primary health care systems and which integrate disease prevention activities, including immunization programs and broad health education.
Malaria is the leading killer of children in many African countries.
U.S. assistance can help in applied and basic research and malaria control programs. U.S. programs should support additional interventions to promote behavior change, encourage social marketing of condoms and the control of sexually transmitted diseases, and support research on other means to reduce HIV transmission, including vaccines. The U.S. should intensify assistance for improved reproductive health and family planning in Africa and should include efforts to increase the range of choice of contraceptive methods. The U.S. should explore additional means to assure that African professionals have access to public health information, technical assistance and training in epidemiology, disease surveillance, computer science and data use. American academic, philanthropic, health and civic institutions can be of assistance to health programs in Africa, including linkages with American medical research and training institutions.