MALARIA ERADICATION: WHAT WE NEED TO DO TO GET BACK ON TRACK

After a 3-year study of trends and future projections for the factors and determinants of malaria, WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group on Malaria Eradication (SAGme) released the executive summary of its report. In summary, SAGme reaffirms that eradication is a goal worth pursuing and would save millions of lives and billions of dollars but cautions that we are far from a malaria-free world. 

According to the executive summary of the report:

• Eradicating malaria would both save millions of lives and save billions of dollars, boosting economies.
• We can only achieve a malaria-free world if we invest in research and development for new tools for malaria prevention and treatment.
• Increased political will and funding is critical, including a commitment to advance Universal Health Coverage (UHC), improve access to services and strengthen health systems.
• We need subnational, national and regional strategies and better surveillance and data to guide a more targeted malaria response.
• 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.

To learn more, watch this video of WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (aka: Dr Tedros):