Commentary: learning all the lessons: expanding access to malaria diagnosis and treatment

An independent evaluation of the Affordable Medicine Facility for malaria (AMFm) pilot phase has hailed it as a success, but important limitations and unanswered questions remain. In 2012, the board of the Global Fund decided to integrate the AMFm into country grants by 2014. This means that countries now need to determine how much of available grant resources to spend on expanding access through the public sector and how much, if any, on subsidizing drugs in the private, for-profit sector. The assumption of the AMFm has assumed that improving delivery of artemisinin-based combination therapy through the private sector would be more efficient than further expanding access through the public sector and community health workers. But, the advantage of expanding and improving service delivery through the public sector and community health workers is that treatments can be effectively linked with diagnosis and that diagnosis and treatment can be offered for free.