The following is a summary of three opinion pieces addressing World Malaria Day 2014.

Huffington Post: Top 10 Reasons to Believe Malaria Can Be Defeated in Our Lifetime
Ray Chambers, U.N. special envoy for health financing

“In 2008, the malaria community came together to celebrate the first World Malaria Day and redouble global efforts to fight one of the world’s oldest diseases, which at that time killed one million children a year. The progress made in the six years since has not only saved millions of lives (child deaths this year are below 500,000 for the first time in history), but given us reason to believe, this World Malaria Day, we can defeat malaria in our lifetime…” Chambers discusses 10 reasons why this is the case (4/25).

Huffington Post: New Focus on Housing Improvements May Be Key to Reducing the Global Burden of Malaria
Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International

“We believe that adequate housing can improve the lives and health of millions of people. We have enough positive indicators to urge that housing improvements be examined carefully as another valuable tool in reducing the incidences of malaria. We need to bring together experts from diverse fields to develop a large-scale research agenda that makes a clear connection between improved homes and malaria reduction. This may be one of the most cost-effective methods for reducing the global burden of malaria — and for bringing hope to millions of families worldwide” (4/25).

The Lancet: Time to contain artemisinin resistance
“The theme of this year’s World Malaria Day (April 25) is elimination: invest in the future and defeat malaria. Good progress has been made towards controlling malaria and reducing disease incidence. … This success can be attributed, in part, to the use of artemisinin-based combination therapy in malaria-endemic countries. But does resistance to artemisinins in the Greater Mekong Subregion threaten a global health catastrophe? … This year’s World Malaria Day should refocus commitment to address the danger of artemisinin resistance with effective mobilization of resources in the field, research, and above all leadership” (4/26).