Newsweek examines global malaria action plan

Newsweek in its Oct. 6 issue examines malaria eradication efforts and the Global Malaria Action Plan, which aims to eradicate malaria worldwide and was released last week during the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (Carmichael/Cunningham, Newsweek, 10/6).

During the meeting, government leaders, philanthropists and international organizations announced a combined $3 billion contribution to implement GMAP, which aims to prevent 4.2 million deaths from malaria by 2015 by providing an array of interventions, including insecticide-treated nets, indoor insecticide spraying and effective malaria drugs (GlobalHealthReporting.org, 9/26).

According to Newsweek, malaria eradication is "probably the greatest challenge in all of public health" and will require "that commitment remain high even as infection rates drop." Previous efforts to combat malaria, concentrated after World War II, successfully eradicated the disease in many industrialized nations through widespread DDT spraying campaigns, but worldwide commitment to eradication efforts decreased as malaria case rates began to fall. Bill Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has called previous efforts to eradicate malaria "the most repeated failure in all of global health."

However, new sources of financing such as the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and advances in malaria drugs and long-lasting ITNs have reinvigorated efforts to combat malaria. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "In the past, we could say, 'We don't have the nets, we don't have the science, we don't have the technology,'" but now there is "no excuse." Scott Case, vice chair and CEO of Malaria No More, said, "It's a little like putting the first mammal into orbit. Once you see that it can be done, it opens up a whole new set of possibilities." Advocates also are hopeful that GMAP will be successful and will "open the door" for combating other diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB and pneumonia, Newsweek reports.

According to Newsweek, researchers will need to develop new drugs and a vaccine against malaria to fully eradicate the disease or "we will be condemned to a never-ending cycle of outbreaks." However, it is unlikely that a malaria vaccine will be available for at least two decades, according to Bill Gates. GMAP plots a course for malaria eradication over the next 50 years, rather than over the next five to 10 years, in an effort to "harden people's resolve for the battle ahead," Newsweek reports. The report recommends "front-loading" money by spending large sums in the initial years of the campaign to jump-start malaria elimination. However, even after achieving initial success, the public health community must sustain efforts to fight the disease or "success will once again breed failure," Newsweek reports. In addition, eradication efforts must involve researchers, public health workers, donors and local residents to be successful, according to Newsweek (Newsweek, 10/6).

Related Opinion Piece

Faith communities and interfaith cooperation are "essential" components to achieving the MDG target of eradicating malaria by 2015, Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair writes in a related Newsweek opinion piece.

According to Blair, faith communities are an "invaluable complement to government programs" because they can "pass on health messages to people unreachable by governments," including "the poorest, the least educated, those living off the beaten track in poor rural areas." In addition, religious leaders "are regarded as trusted authority figures" and can spread messages effectively on the importance of using ITNs and appropriate malaria drugs. If faith communities were "plugged into national health plans," had sufficient drugs and knowledge, and trained primary health care workers, "they would make a huge contribution" to the malaria eradication campaign, Blair writes.

Blair adds that faith communities' involvement in HIV/AIDS campaigns "has been widely recognized and has stimulated the growth of new and effective interfaith networks." Blair's Tony Blair Faith Foundation aims to achieve similar success in the fight against malaria by drawing on interfaith collaboration, effective networks and best practices. "[A]ll the members of mainstream faiths believe in the duty to help those in suffering and need," Blair writes, adding that malaria control programs "are likely to fall short of their targets if the faith communities, mosques, churches, temples are not integrated into their delivery." Meeting the MDG target of eradicating malaria by 2015 will require the cooperation of a broad "coalition of forces," Blair writes, concluding, "Today it is no longer an option for faith communities to work together. It has become a necessity. The time is now" (Blair, Newsweek, 10/6).