Too early to say if Roll Back Malaria initiative is working

Experts say it is too early to assess if an international initiative, Roll Back Malaria (RBM), has had any impact on combating malaria.

Roll Back Malaria, an international group of 90 organisations set up in 1998 to tackle malaria says more people now have access to preventative measures such as mosquito nets and the newest malaria medicines.

Malaria kills one million people each year and in 2003, between 350 and 500 million people worldwide became ill with malaria.

RBM researchers say it will be three years before the effect of the initiatives will become clear but they hope that because more people have access to ways of preventing and treating the disease the number who become ill will start to decline.

Dr Jong-wook Lee, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), one of the partners in Roll Back Malaria, says that many countries are moving forward with malaria control programmes, and even those with limited resources and a heavy malaria burden now have a better opportunity to gain ground against the disease but proven interventions, such as insecticide-treated nets and the latest artemisinin-based combination therapies, must reach many more people before a real impact on malaria is seen.

Difficulties involved in obtaining accurate data from affected countries, and the fact that efforts to tackle the condition only gathered pace recently, means it is too soon to say if these developments had had an effect. More money is needed, a projected US$3.2 billion per year, to combat malaria effectively in the 82 countries which are worst affected and for the Roll Back Malaria partnership to achieve its goals to combat malaria effectively in the 82 countries which are worst affected.

Only US$600million was made available this year for global malaria control. The World Bank recently announced it would commit up to US$1 billion over the next five years to help people gain access to essential malaria prevention and treatment.

Ann Veneman, Executive Director of Unicef, says malaria takes three times the number of lives of children in Africa compared with HIV infection and the only way to dramatically reduce child deaths in the next decade is to put more focus on combating malaria.

Recent criticism has said the Roll Back Malaria's "loose association" structure has meant it has been unable to build on the declaration as cases of the infectious disease were rising, with nearly 50% more cases than at the time of the Abuja Declaration.

An editorial in the Lancet said: "Five years on from the Abuja Summit, it is clear that not only has RBM failed in its aims but it may also have caused harm."