MALARIA research must be tackled with the same urgency as the AIDS
pandemic if the 鈥渄isaster looming over sub-Saharan Africa鈥� is to be prevented,
says an influential group which includes some of the world鈥檚 top biomedical
scientists.
Governments have a chance to fight back against malaria by injecting more
cash into research at international summits planned for later this year by the
rich G7 nations and the Organization of African Unity, the experts write in this
week鈥檚 Nature.
They note that the World Bank and the WHO鈥檚 African regional office are also
considering a new antimalaria strategy. The group includes Harold Varmus,
director of the US National Institutes of Health and Tore Godal, who heads the
WHO鈥檚 Tropical Diseases Research Programme. Over a million people a
year鈥攎ostly children鈥攄ie from malaria. Current global spending on
malaria research is just $84 million a year, whereas the US alone spends
$5.4 billion a year on AIDS research, says Godal. The experts want more
cash to be spent on drug development, vaccine research and on assessing the
impact of insecticide spraying.
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