Title: Supporting the goals to protect United States military personnel from malaria.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution expresses that the House of Representatives supports the goals of researching new interventions to prevent and treat malaria and encourages continued leadership by the United States to ensure that service member health is not jeopardized by vector-borne disease. The resolution also supports sustained or enhanced efforts to ensure that once malaria is eliminated in a country it does not return.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 653 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 653

 Supporting the goals to protect United States military personnel from 
                                malaria.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 17, 2021

    Mr. Panetta (for himself and Mr. Mast) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and 
    in addition to the Committees on Armed Services, and Energy and 
Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Supporting the goals to protect United States military personnel from 
                                malaria.

Whereas fighting malaria is in the national interest of the United States;
Whereas reducing the incidence of malaria protects members of the Armed Forces 
        deployed to malaria-endemic regions;
Whereas the ``World malaria report 2020'' by the World Health Organization 
        states that, in 2019, approximately 409,000 people died of malaria;
Whereas, in 2019, 87 countries and areas had ongoing malaria transmissions, 
        including areas of Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South 
        America;
Whereas the Department of Defense reports that a total of 58 members of the 
        Armed Forces were diagnosed with malaria in 2018, a 35-percent increase 
        from 2017;
Whereas, in 2017, incidents of malaria were diagnosed at or reported from 19 
        different medical facilities in the United States, Afghanistan, Qatar, 
        Germany, Djibouti, Japan, and the Republic of Korea;
Whereas the Department of Defense recognizes malaria as the leading infectious 
        disease threat to United States Armed Forces deployed to the United 
        States Africa Command area of responsibility and the United States Indo-
        Pacific Command area of responsibility;
Whereas U.S. support for efforts to fight malaria is in the foreign policy and 
        humanitarian interests of the United States and highlights the values of 
        the people of the United States through the work of governmental, 
        nongovernmental, and faith-based organizations of the United States that 
        are on the frontlines of the malaria battle globally;
Whereas U.S. support for efforts to fight malaria and other infectious diseases 
        advance the national security strategy of the United States, and is a 
        key tool to enhance operational readiness, interoperability, and 
        security cooperation, protecting Americans at home and abroad;
Whereas the U.S. Government has played a leading role in the recent progress 
        made toward reducing the global burden of malaria and other infectious 
        diseases, particularly through bilateral, multilateral, international, 
        and civil society partners;
Whereas, since 1893, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) has 
        played a leadership role protecting United States servicemembers from 
        the world's most pervasive infectious diseases, including malaria, HIV/
        AIDS, Ebola, dengue, and, most recently, COVID-19;
Whereas the WRAIR Center for Infectious Disease Research has been responsible 
        for developing critical Food and Drug Administration-approved medicines, 
        vaccines, drugs, and other interventions used to prevent malaria, 
        Japanese encephalitis, hepatitis A, adenovirus, and other infectious 
        diseases in deployed members of the Armed Forces;
Whereas the WRAIR Malaria Vaccine and Experimental Therapeutics Branches have 
        emerged as the premier effort of the Department of Defense to develop 
        vaccines and drugs to protect such deployed members from malaria and 
        other infectious diseases and military health threats;
Whereas WRAIR continues to play a leadership role in the research and 
        development of lifesaving medicines, including the recently approved 
        tafenoquine (a radical cure and prophylaxis that protects the warfighter 
        from P vivax relapse, which is a condition that causes approximately 8.5 
        million clinical infections per year worldwide);
Whereas WRAIR leads the fight against drug-resistant strains of malaria, 
        developing new treatments that have revolutionized malaria prevention 
        efforts;
Whereas WRAIR's international network of laboratories supports medical diplomacy 
        and fosters collaborations between the United States and host nations in 
        biomedical research; and
Whereas WRAIR's unique expertise, capabilities, and resources have led to 
        historic clinical trials, testing vaccines to prevent the spread of HIV/
        AIDS, Zika, and malaria: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) supports the goals of researching new interventions to 
        prevent and treat malaria, as it is in the national security, 
        foreign affairs, political, and humanitarian interest of the 
        United States;
            (2) encourages continued leadership by the United States 
        through programs such as the Walter Reed Army Institute of 
        Research to ensure that force health is not jeopardized by 
        vector-borne diseases; and
            (3) supports sustained or enhanced efforts to ensure that 
        once malaria is eliminated in a country, malaria does not 
        return to the country.
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