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Charles Dharapak/AP
U.S. President George W. Bush gets under an insecticide mosquito net, used to combat
malaria, as he visits A to Z textile mills in Arusha, Tanzania, Feb. 18, 2008. (AP)
U.S. President George W. Bush gets under an insecticide mosquito net, used to combat
malaria, as he visits A to Z textile mills in Arusha, Tanzania, Feb. 18, 2008. (AP)
UN on Tight Deadline to Reduce Malaria Cases
July 24, 2008 04:31 PM
Doubts are surfacing about whether the UN will be able to meet a goal of reducing the incidence of malaria worldwide.
30-Second Summary
The UN is rapidly approaching the end of a timetable it set to reduce the incidence of malaria in Africa and the rest of the world.
The organization is acting on a resolution passed years ago to control malaria’s spread in Africa by 2010, and in other parts of the world by 2015.
Timing anti-malaria efforts in Africa would have to “be very tight and will require an unprecedented degree of coordination among financing, training, monitoring and logistics” to be successful, said Scientific American.
Some people, however, have doubts that the programs will work that quickly.
An analysis of how anti-malaria funds are used in other parts of the world indicates that the UN may not achieve its 2015 goal either.
Not only would spending on malaria prevention have to increase between 50 percent and 450 percent, but money would have to be better allocated.
In some cases, countries with more people at risk of malaria receive less money than those with fewer people in danger.
Worldwide, more than one million people die from malaria each year, primarily children in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is carried by mosquitoes, and causes flu-like symptoms, fever and chills.
“The toll of malaria is even more tragic because the disease itself is highly treatable and preventable,” President Bush once said of the disease. “Yet this is also our opportunity because we know that large-scale action can defeat this disease in whole regions.”
The organization is acting on a resolution passed years ago to control malaria’s spread in Africa by 2010, and in other parts of the world by 2015.
Timing anti-malaria efforts in Africa would have to “be very tight and will require an unprecedented degree of coordination among financing, training, monitoring and logistics” to be successful, said Scientific American.
Some people, however, have doubts that the programs will work that quickly.
An analysis of how anti-malaria funds are used in other parts of the world indicates that the UN may not achieve its 2015 goal either.
Not only would spending on malaria prevention have to increase between 50 percent and 450 percent, but money would have to be better allocated.
In some cases, countries with more people at risk of malaria receive less money than those with fewer people in danger.
Worldwide, more than one million people die from malaria each year, primarily children in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is carried by mosquitoes, and causes flu-like symptoms, fever and chills.
“The toll of malaria is even more tragic because the disease itself is highly treatable and preventable,” President Bush once said of the disease. “Yet this is also our opportunity because we know that large-scale action can defeat this disease in whole regions.”
Headline Link: Time drawing near to meet UN malaria goals
“Not just millions of lives but also the very capacity of the world to take on big and crucial goals is at stake” in this anti-malaria effort, according to Scientific American. If the campaign is successful, countries will be enabled “to consider similarly urgent challenges in food production, water management, biodiversity conservation and climate control, to name but four crucial areas.”
Source: Scientific American
Background: Reducing ‘the burden of malaria’
In 2005, the United States co-sponsored a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly in New York. The resolution calls for a rollback of malaria cases in developing countries—particularly in Africa—by 2010. Another provision in the resolution urges the international community “to continue working to reduce the burden of malaria by 75 percent by 2015.”
Source: America.gov
Opinion & Analysis: More funding required
One reason the UN may not meet its goals to stop the spread of malaria is that the organization hasn’t spent enough money to do so. Approximately US$1 billion per year is invested in malaria prevention, which is “billions short of what several independent estimates suggest is necessary to achieve basic international goals for reducing malaria burdens,” said Professor Anthony Kiszewski, an epidemiology expert.
Source: The Guardian
Related Topic: The price of anti-malaria drugs
Former president Bill Clinton recently announced that his foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, has entered into an agreement with six companies in China and India to reduce the price of anti-malaria drugs for approximately 70 countries. In many parts of the world, the malaria parasite has become resistant to Chloroquine, the standard treatment for the illness. Artemisinin is a plant extract replacing Chloroquine, but its price has bounced between $155 and $1,100 per kilogram recently.
Source: CBC News
Reference: Malaria; bed nets
Malaria, a disease carried by mosquitoes, affects between 350 million and 500 million people worldwide each year. Malaria is sometimes fatal, but it can be prevented and cured using anti-malarial drugs, bed nets and insecticides.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Another organization working to control the spread of malaria is Nothing But Nets. Bed nets treated in insecticide are highly effective deterrents to malaria mosquitoes, and can protect people when the mosquitoes tend to bite people most: at night.
Source: Nothing But Nets
One of the Gates Foundation’s primary initiatives is to treat and solve the problem of malaria.
Source: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
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