Scientific American Magazine posted 7/22/08 | 4 comments

Is the U.N. Deadline on Curing Malaria Wishful Thinking?

In a dramatic call to action in April, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon—backed by the African Union, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, ExxonMobil, the World Bank, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, among other key international organizations and businesses—set a timetable for comprehensive malaria control in Africa by the end of 2010. Secretary-General Ban has thrown down the gauntlet: there is no reason why a million or more children should die every year of a largely preventable and wholly treatable disease.

The operational objective is to ensure that crucial interventions are taken continent-wide and at the appropriate scale within the next two and a half years.... [more]