The World Health Organization (WHO) says accelerated research and development (R&D) in new tools for malaria prevention and treatment is key if the world is to eradicate malaria in the foreseeable future: today less than 1% of funding for health R&D investment goes to developing tools to tackle malaria.
WHO also flags the urgent need for progress to advance universal health coverage and improve access to services, and better surveillance to guide a more targeted malaria response.
The findings have emerged in a report from WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group on Malaria Eradication (SAGme).
“To achieve a malaria-free world we must reinvigorate the drive to find the transformative strategies and tools that can be tailored to the local situation. Business, as usual, is not only slowing progress, but it is sending us backward,” according to Dr. Marcel Tanner, Chair of the SAGme.
The group has published the executive summary of its report ahead of a WHO-hosted forum on “Rising to the Challenge of Malaria Eradication” to be held in Geneva on 9 September 2019.
“Freeing the world of malaria would be one of the greatest achievements in public health,” says Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “With new tools and approaches we can make this vision a reality.”
Eradicating malaria would both save lives and boost economies.
The group’s analyses showed that scaling up current malaria interventions would prevent an additional 2 billion malaria cases and 4 million deaths by 2030 – provided those interventions reach 90% of the population in the 29 countries that account for 95% of the global burden.
Read and download the executive summary of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group on Malaria Eradication (SAGme) report.
Original source: WHO
Published on 23 August 2019
