Augusta-based public health nonprofit Medical Care Development Inc. has been recognized with a national award by the U.S. Department of State for the group’s work to eliminate malaria.
MCD was named the 2019 winner of the P3 Impact Award, which is given to public-private partnerships that address global challenges. MCD and its partners received the award for their 15-year campaign on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea, where transmission of the deadly disease fell 99% and mortality in children under the age of 5 decreased 63%.
Malaria had been the biggest killer on the island, according to Christopher Schwabe, president and CEO of MCD. The island has a population of 335,000 and is just off the western coast of Africa.
The project has also informed the broader malaria control and elimination strategy for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, according to the State Department. The work includes tracking and preventing the disease by killing a type of mosquito responsible for its transmission and by testing a new malaria vaccine.
MCD partnered with with Equatorial Guinea’s National Malaria Control Program; Sanaria, a U.S.-based biotech company developing a malaria vaccine; the University of Southern Maine, and several research institutes around the world. The initiative was funded by Equatorial Guinea, Marathon Oil, Noble Energy and Atlantic Methanol.
The award is presented annually by the Office of Global Partnerships at the State Department, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and Concordia University. MCD’s receipt of the award was celebrated Thursday at a ceremony at the Hall of Flags at the State House in Augusta.
“As a Maine-based global public health company, our employees take great pride in being part of this project and earning such a high honor for our work,” Schwabe said Thursday. “Collaborating with great partners, we have substantially reduced the scourge of malaria from Bioko where the disease was previously the number one cause of morbidity and mortality for the residents of the island.
“This is one example of a wide range of highly impactful initiatives that MCD undertakes overseas, throughout Maine and across the United States, leveraging the experience and capabilities the organization has acquired from more than 50 years of work in serving rural and underserved communities here in Maine, the U.S. and globally.”
Speakers at the press conference included Schwabe, Evelyn Kieltyka, senior vice president of program services at Maine Family Planning and board chair for MCD; Yellow Light Breen, president and CEO of the Maine Development Foundation; and Nirav D. Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.