| Malaria goal 'unlikely to be reached' | Posted on 22/07/2008 in Industry related health news Shortfalls in funding mean that the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halt and begin to reverse malaria worldwide is unlikely to be met, experts warned today.
The goal was set in 2000 by the United Nations as part of efforts to reduce the world's major diseases.
Assessing progress in the past eight years, Professor Bob Snow and colleagues from the University of Oxford identified areas where risk is moderate or high and where the risk is relatively low and compared this to levels of funding to control malaria.
They also analysed where funding was allocated for malaria control from major donors such as the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), the World Bank and the US President's Initiative and from national governments.
Writing in the journal PLoS Medicine, they argue that more money needs to be invested and to be distributed more fairly.
The researchers found a wide range of regional disparity between risk levels and amount of money allocated to the area for malaria control.
Certain areas, such as Africa, the Americas and the Middle East, received appropriate levels of the funding disbursed, but there were large shortfalls in other regions, such as south-east Asia and the Western Pacific regions.
"There is clearly a lot of good will from the international community to tackle malaria, but more money needs to be invested and this needs to be distributed more equitably," said Professor Snow, who is based at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in Nairobi, Kenya.
"If not, it is unlikely that the Millennium Development Goal to tackle malaria will be met."Other news stories from 22/07/2008
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