What should you know about the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria?

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is an international financing partnership. It helps fund prevention, testing, medicines, health services and community-led programs in places where these diseases cause substantial harm. Its work can support mosquito-control measures, access to malaria testing and supplies for health services, while local governments and healthcare teams deliver care.

This organization is not a clinic, emergency service or substitute for a consultation. Funding programs can strengthen access to care, but a person with symptoms still needs an assessment through an appropriate healthcare service. Malaria is an infection that can become serious, especially when treatment is delayed.

If you have fever, chills or muscle aches after living in or travelling through a malaria-risk area, arrange prompt medical advice and explain your travel history. A clinician may recommend a blood test or another diagnostic assessment. Do not rely on information about a global health organization to decide whether you need treatment, and do not take leftover medicines without professional guidance.

Before travel, ask a travel-health clinician whether malaria prophylaxis is suitable for your destination, itinerary and health history. Prevention may also include measures that reduce mosquito bites, such as using repellent, wearing clothing that covers the skin and choosing protected sleeping arrangements.

Seek urgent medical care for fever or suspected malaria with confusion, extreme weakness, trouble breathing, repeated vomiting, fainting, seizures or difficulty staying awake. Urgency is also warranted if symptoms are worsening or begin after travel to a malaria-risk area. Tell the healthcare team where you have travelled and when symptoms began, even if you used mosquito precautions or preventive medicine.

You could ask: Could my symptoms fit malaria or another infection? Which test is appropriate? Does my travel history change the urgency? If I am planning travel, do I need malaria prophylaxis, and which mosquito-bite precautions should I use?