The new countries were announced at a White House summit on malaria, intended to raise awareness of the mosquito-borne disease and to mobilize a grass-roots effort among voluntary, faith-based and non-profit organizations to save millions of lives.
Tanzania, Angola, and Uganda were the first three countries in the program, followed by Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal.
First lady Laura Bush also urged American school children to donate $10 each to buy insecticide-treated mosquito nets to help save the lives of African children.
"This is a disease that‘s preventable," Mrs. Bush said. "We‘ve eradicated it in the United States generations ago, so people don‘t even really have a memory of it."