Collapse of USAID leaves a gap in our huge fight against malaria

The price of a pint per person in Ireland could help us to plug the gap left by the Trump administration 

A health worker administers a malaria vaccine to a child in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. File photo: AP/Diomande Ble Blonde

Today is a World Malaria Day like no other. After 25 years of unprecedented progress, which has prevented 2.2 billion cases of malaria and saved 12.7 million lives, one of the two key funding agencies that underpinned that collective global effort has suddenly disappeared. 

Over recent weeks, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been assimilated into the US State Department, most of its funding programmes terminated and most of its staff sacked.