Last Friday was Africa Malaria Day, celebrating the third anniversary of the Abuja Declaration under the slogan ‘Roll Back Malaria, Protect Women and Children!’. This year’s “theme” is ‘Insecticide Treated Nets and effective malaria treatment for pregnant women and young children by 2005’. While this effort may seem decidedly low-tech to most Americans it nonetheless has been a big success that needs to be expanded to address malaria, which is killing one African child every 30 seconds.
Hi-tech efforts to control malaria continue, of course. Hundreds of new malaria drug targets have been identified from sequencing the malaria genome with the ultimate goal of coming up with preventative vaccines, not treatment drugs. For now, though, mosquito nets will have to suffice.