UN wages war on malaria

By David Cronin

Date: 06/04/06

By 2015 the spread of malaria and tuberculosis should be halted, governments belonging to the United Nations have agreed.

Reaching this Millennium Development Goal will, however, require the marshalling of substantially more resources than are currently being devoted to the battle against these two diseases.

Two billion people - one-third of the world's inhabitants - are infected with TB bacilli, the microbes that cause tuberculosis. One in every ten of these will become sick with TB, the World Health Organization (WHO) has predicted, with those who also contract HIV most at risk. At present, 5,000 people die from TB every day. The disease is most common in Africa but half of all new cases are concentrated in six Asian countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Malaria is similarly worrying, killing more than 2,000 children each day in sub-Saharan Africa alone. That region accounts for 90% of the world's annual malaria death toll of 1 million.

In a recent publication called Europe Cares, the European Commission suggested that the Union was leading efforts against these diseases. By earmarking EUR 2.8 billion to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2002-2007, the Commission and EU member states account for 55% of all money pledged to this fund.

But some MEPs have sounded a more critical note this week. In a debate ahead of World Health Day (7 March), Socialist deputies complained that each year only 6% of a new EUR 2 billion development co-operation instrument will go to social projects, including health education.

Article looks at the World Health Organisation's role in the global fight against malaria and the EU's involvement in this.
Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'Pandemics'.

European Commission: DG Development: Human and Social Development: Health - AIDS - Population https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sectors/human-development/health_en

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