The Lancet: The malaria eradication challenge

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO

 

“…Three years ago, at the request of my predecessor, Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO established a strategic advisory group tasked with analyzing future scenarios for malaria, including the feasibility and expected cost of malaria eradication. … The report of the group is consistent with the view of global experts that although elimination has been successfully achieved in many countries, the currently available tools and approaches will not be sufficient to achieve malaria eradication. As with smallpox and polio, a commitment to eradicate must spur research and development to deliver new tools. In 2017, the Lancet Commission on Malaria Eradication (the Commission) was announced, and the report of the Commission is now published. Both the Lancet Commission and the WHO advisory group aspire to a malaria-free world. Both recognize the urgent need to intensify efforts to reduce the misery inflicted by a disease that continues to claim more than 400,000 lives each year. … The Commission makes a bold call for eradicating malaria by 2050. I would be thrilled to see this global scourge eradicated even earlier. But we will not achieve eradication within this timeframe with the currently available tools and approaches — most of which were developed in the past century or even earlier. So, although the imperfect application of imperfect tools has reduced the burden of malaria and helped eliminate malaria from many countries, it is not enough. The good news is that we, the global malaria community, know what we need to do…” (9/8).