Question of the Week: Is the EU doing enough to fight malaria?

Date: 28/04/05

Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré is director of the Roll Back Malaria Department in the World Health Organisation. Monday (25 April) was World Malaria Day, when the United Nations highlighted a disease that kills at least one million people each year. We asked her: Is the EU doing enough to fight malaria?

Nafo-Traoré: It could do better.

We estimate that $2 billion (1.4 bn euro) is needed to fight malaria in Africa each year and $1bn for countries outside Africa.

Yet the amount of resources allocated to malaria control is about $400 million (309m euro), compared to $68m when Roll Back Malaria was launched in 1998.

That is an increase, of course, but compared to what is needed, it is peanuts.

The EU really needs to look at the malaria crisis. It is an unnecessary crisis because we have the means and the tools to fight against the disease. It is preventable, treatable and curable.With $1.50-$2.50, we can treat malaria cases and with $5-$6, we can have an insecticide-treated bed-net [to repel mosquitoes] that lasts four years. Combining prevention and treatment can really help us to substantially reduce the burden of malaria, at least among the most vulnerable sectors of the population: pregnant women, the under-fives and people living with HIV-AIDS.

Question answered by Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, Director of the Roll Back Malaria Department in the World Health Organisation on the occasion of World Malaria Day, 25 April 2005, when the United Nations highlighted a disease that kills at least one million people each year.

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